Carel Chr. Schulz
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Organist and conductor Carel Christiaan Schulz passed away on Tuesday 26 September at the age of 73. Schulz was the organist of the Jerusalem Church in Amsterdam for a long time and conducted a large number of choirs.
Digital and Hauptwerk!
Carel Christiaan Schulz was born on 3 January 1950 in Amsterdam-Noord. At the age of six he received his first organ lessons from Jan Pasveer. At the age of nine he accompanied a church service for the first time and at the age of thirteen he gave his first organ concert.
Later he took organ lessons from Ger van Poppel, Rutger van Mazijk and Piet van Egmond. He first studied music at the Muzieklyceum in Amsterdam and later in Utrecht with Stoffel van Viegen (organ) and choir and orchestra conducting with Otto Hamburg, among others.
Church organist
He began his career as a church organist at a young age in Zunderdorp, shortly followed by Zuiderwoude near Broek in Waterland. During his studies he was organist in the Grote Kerk in Muiden and also played in the reformed Tuindorpkerk in Utrecht. He then became organist of the Oosterkerk in Utrecht until just before the closure of this reformed church in 1980. In that year he was appointed organist of the Jeruzalemkerk in Amsterdam and was for decades the permanent player of the large Furtwängler & Hammer organ.
Conductor
Also at a young age, his career as a choir conductor and music teacher began. At the age of sixteen, he stood in front of his first choir. Later, as a young teacher, he would form a school choir. Schulz conducted a large number of choirs, including in Tiel, Bodegraven, Woerden, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Culemborg, Urk, Vianen and IJsselstein, the Nunspeet Men's Choir and the Christian mixed choir Hosanna in Gouda. He performed together with a number of these choirs under the name 'De Rijnstreekse Koren' and the 'Carelistische Koren'.
Men's Choir and the Christian mixed choir Hosanna in Gouda. He performed together with a number of these choirs under the name 'De Rijnstreekse Koren' and the 'Carelistische
Koren'.
Schulz performed with his choirs for radio and television, made international concert tours and recorded a large number of LPs and CDs. Several recordings of his organ improvisations have also been released, including from Amsterdam, Kampen, Vught, Zutphen and Zwolle.
Distinctions
For his services as a musician, he was awarded a royal distinction in 2008 with an appointment as Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
Germany
After his musical career in the Netherlands, he and his family moved to Germany, where they ran a guesthouse in Bad Sachsa (Harz) from 2014.
Carel Christiaan Schulz had recently been struggling with a tumor, complications from which he died at the age of 73.
