Victim of Leakin Park stabbing was respected experimental musician and Towson University professor

John Dierker put the virtue in virtuoso.

That’s how his friends saw him, at least — a musician of many talents, but little ego, who could rock out in Baltimore’s avant-garde music scene and then teach a Towson University student how to perfect the latest pop hit. The 62-year-old clarinet, saxophone and piano player was well known in the city for his musical acumen and dry humor, said Gregory Thompkins, a longtime friend and collaborator.

Thompkins was just one of dozens posting tributes to their late friend online this week.

Dierker, a lifelong Marylander and prominent experimental musician, was fatally stabbed Tuesday while biking in Leakin Park. Police have not yet identified a suspect.

“John loved to make great sound, period,” said Thompkins, a saxophonist. “John really offered the best of what not only a musician should be, but as a person.”

Dierker and Thompkins first met as middle school students in Pasadena, where they grew up, then played in band together at Chesapeake High School. They shared musical talent and a birthday — Dec. 1, 1963. After graduating in 1981, both headed to Towson University. About a year later, Dierker transferred to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where he finished his degree, Thompkins said.

Their paths crossed on and off over the next several decades; they sometimes played together. In the early 2000s, Thompkins saw him playing a show with a band at Ottobar — and Dierker convinced him to come up on stage and join the band.

“That’s the type of guy John is,” Thompkins said. “Why invite another horn player to sit in on your gig, knowing it’s going to take up your solo time or whatever? But he was pretty adamant about it.”

They went on to play in a band together for another two decades.

Jim Hannah, another friend and collaborator, said he knew Dierker as a musical giant, a revered teacher and an “amazing improviser on woodwinds.” Dierker was an adjunct professor at Towson University since 2009, a spokesperson confirmed.

Dierker also loved to kayak and cycle, Hannah said, and was a devoted husband to Michelle and father to a daughter, Ida.

“What a beautiful fierce lion!” Hannah, a percussionist, wrote on social media. “A creative force so strong and gentle. So undeniable. So unforgettable. So hilarious. So righteous and steadfast. So brilliant. Such a brother. Such a friend.”

Jeff Arnal, a percussionist who also made music with Dierker, remembered spending a week with his friend at Dierker’s family hunting lodge in Denton, where they recorded a duo album.

“Why a hunting lodge?” Arnal said. “Apparently, an actual recording studio would have been too conventional.”

Dierker had “a way of making the most absurd situations seem perfectly reasonable,” Arnal said.

John Berndt, another musician and longtime friend, recalled meeting Dierker for the first time at an experimental show and misinterpreting his “so real and serious” vibe as unfriendly. A few conversations later, he knew how wrong he’d been.

They ended up becoming great friends and living together for three years in the early ’90s. They were looking forward to grabbing lunch next week at Andy Nelson’s Barbecue Restaurant, Berndt said.

Berndt described Dierker as a reliable and unpretentious person who treated everyone with respect. He had a “high capacity for delight that was at odds with how level he was,” Berndt said.

“He never overplayed the cards of his extreme talent, his extreme breadth, his ability to bring such rare intensity,” he added. “Those who know know, know how badly we are undone in this moment. We are all standing in the shadow of this grotesque injustice. Irreplaceable.”

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