Conductor and former music teacher Jan Kruimink died at the age of 71 in his hometown Oosterhesselen. He led several choirs, and also founded two on it: the Ladiespop Choir S4You and him, the Hesseler First Mannenkoor. The divas from Westerbork were also under his musical leadership.
Herman Meijer was a member of him since the foundation, he says in the Radio Drenthe program Hemmeltied. The choir Him stands for an anniversary, which will now have to be celebrated without founder Kruimink.
At the end of last month there was a farewell concert in the Hesselerhof, which Kruimink himself had organized. He had been sick for a long time. “With the three choirs that he conducted, we all sang five songs for him. At the special request from Jan himself. That was a valuable afternoon, with a smile and a tear. Emotional, because you see him sitting in front of you.”
Eddy Kuipers, together with Meijer Member since the founding of him, just tried not to see Kruimink. “I tried not to look at Jan, but at a far point in the room. And then sing as well as possible. I think that went well.”
During that farewell, Kruimink received the silver star from Coevorden, because of his merits for music and music education.
The story of the Men’s Choir starts in 1999. Kruimink led all the ladies’ happy Sound, which later started to be called Sounds4you. “He also wanted to have a men’s pop choir. He won some people in Oosterhesselen whom he thought they were looking forward to it and could sing. If there were fifteen members we would start.”
The patience got a bit up, so with thirteen members the choir started. “There was a condition: you were not allowed to be older than fifty. In January we started rehearsing. Then there was no name yet and it was not yet an official association.” It quickly went with the choir: “Happy Sound had the jubilee concert in May or June because of the five -year anniversary. We were already allowed to sing a few songs there. We were proud, and nervous.”
Kruimink immediately let the choir sing multi -voices, says Meijer. “We started with a song from Simon & Garfunkel, Last night I had the strangest dream. Not too difficult to start with. It sounded nice immediately, and then you get looking forward to it. “
The influence of Kruimink on musical life in and around Oosterhesselen was great. That was also because of his way of working: “He makes all the arrangements himself. We have often had our own edits.”
The fame of Kruimink grew through his contributions to the Toorn van Thunaer in 2019, and last year’s butterfly princess. Before that he wrote all the music, and also conducted during the performances.