Arie Loonstra
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Arie Loonstra (1961) studied at the Municipal Conservatory in Arnhem. He received interpretation courses from Harald Vogel, Jean Boyer and Jos van Immerseel. He is the first organist to record all 150 psalms in order on CD with his project The 150 psalms in French style: four CDs, recorded on organs in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. In 1996 he completed his choir project Songs of Sions: a CD with a cantata on the poems of Robert Murray MacCheyne. In May 1999 his third major project saw the light of day: The 12 Eenige Gezangen; a CD, recorded in the Eglise Wallone in The Hague, on which the twelve songs (in the rhyme of 1773) that we can find behind the psalms can be heard both vocally and instrumentally. In August 2000, Arie Loonstra, inspired by drastic family circumstances, began composing a sequel to Liederen Zions. This eventually resulted in a cantata for choir, orchestra, 2 organs, soloists and zither with the title:
Children of Zions, a CD that was released in November 2001. The 21 Christmas Carols for organ were released on CD and in book form in November 2003. The latest project to date is a sequel to Songs of Zions and Children of Zions and is called Gates of Zions; a joyful cantata for large choir, 2 organs, brass quintet, viola, cello and viola soloist.
The remainder of this page gives you an overview of the first three projects, while the last three projects will receive a lot of attention on their own page for the time being.
In 2011, Arie Loonstra had to stop conducting and teaching due to Parkinson's disease.
