Camil Anton Johan Van Hulse (1 August 1897 in Sint-Niklaas, East Flanders, Belgium – 16 July 1988 in Tucson, Arizona, United States) was a Belgian-American pianist, organist, teacher, and composer.
By the age of twelve, he was able to play the organ, lead a choir, and sing Gregorian chant from attending church services with his father.
Van Hulse attended school in Sint-Niklaas at the St. Joseph Institute and then studied Greek and Latin at the St. Joseph Minor Seminary, a Roman Catholic college which provided basic training for the priesthood.
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Van Hulse joined the military at the age of seventeen.
Therefore, he moved to Oklahoma in September 1923 and then to Tucson, Arizona, at that time one of the most musical cities in America.
After spending a summer in Tucson, where the temperature is close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, he felt much better and decided to stay there.
Van Hulse maintained the late romantic style, but combined this with modern trends such as Expressionism.
In 1946 he won four prizes - two awarded by the Society of Arizona Composers for an instrumental composition Suite for Cello and Piano and for a vocal number, and 'The Beatitudes', a choral work with piano and organ accompaniment (first presented in Tucson on 8 May that year).
For the 750th anniversary of the city of Sint-Niklaas, he wrote The Ballad of the Six Knights for orchestra, choir and baritone solo on a text by Anton van Wilderode.