In spite of his six ultimately unsuccessful years of trying to master the violin, Rogier never lost his love for it - "there is no instrument more wonderful than the violin", he once said.
His mother was ballet dancer Ankie Heukers; his father Willem van Otterloo, renowned chief conductor of the Utrechts Stedelijk Orkest (1937-1949) and later of the Residentie Orkest, alternatively known as The Hague Philharmonic (1949-1974).
Chief of the Netherlands' Metropole Orchestra from 1980 until his untimely passing in 1988.