Zwier van der Weerd
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Zwier is about four years old - just a cheerful boy from a farm in Welsum - when those around him notice that he can sing quite nicely. The toddler is 'discovered' by Egbert Woelderink, a respected organist, famous in the orthodox wing of the Reformed Church. "If I was staying with an aunt in Hasselt and she had to leave for a while, I was dumped at Woelderink.
He took me to church; I was allowed to stand on a chair and sing while he played. I thought it was great, how that sounded in that big church. It was he who said to my parents: you have to do something with that boy."
Zwier is seven when his parents take him to singing lessons. "At Mrs. Van der Veen's in Hattem. He immediately saw a boy soprano in me. Had me sing in Latin, pieces like Stabat Mater. I hated it; I broke my tongue over those incomprehensible words."
At the same time, the young Zwier 'falls' into the hands of Herman Riphagen and his Herghesangertjes in Heerde. Just right. Riphagen soon moulded one of his soloists, the jewel of the choir, which travels throughout the Netherlands and across the border for concerts and tours.
Until he was thirteen. Then the beard in the throat announces itself. As a farewell to the boy soprano, a CD recording is planned with a male quartet from Elburg. "We studied terribly hard. And on that very night it happened: beard in the throat. I didn't bake any of it. Recording failed, no CD."
"Herman Riphagen advised: do nothing for two years; Don't sing." That's what Van der Weerd did. "Two years later, Herman came to visit us at home. He sat down at the piano, I sang and Herman says: must; You have to do something with that. I need you in the Vaassen men's choir."
Initially, the Welsum teenager doesn't like it among the much older men: "All the fathers around me." Zwier refuses. His parents have to exert considerable pressure to get him to Vaassen every week. Until he starts having fun with it. "You sing your solo and then a whole male choir joins in behind you. Awesome."
Herman Riphagen 'sends' him, together with Gert Pannekoek, the other soloist of Looft den Heere, to singing lessons in Amersfoort. "That's when it started to get fun. You become a little known. Be asked. Herman Dalhuisen, one of the organists of the Grote Kerk in Epe, also came to our home. "Your son, can't he even sing to our summer evening song?" he asked my mother."
Zwier sings in the Grote Kerk and there comes into contact with the other organist, Wim van Waveren Hogervorst. We hit it off right away. "I'm a free guy. It is very difficult to make music with me. I sing a piece, sometimes something different than other times. Wim understands that. He also likes to improvise. We became buddies. We've been everywhere; We traveled all over the country for performances."
Then it goes fast. Zwier joins the Elburger men's choir. He is persuaded to become the conductor of the men's choir Groot Schuylenburg, lets the new children's choir Eigen-Wijs shine in Terwolde, sings in worship services, is a guest soloist with choirs, becomes conductor of De Cantorij in Wapenveld.
And brimming with new initiatives. With his contagious enthusiasm, he succeeds in forming (almost) all of Vorchten into an occasional choir that sings in church at Christmas and Easter.
"Then Nijbroek also came: can you do a musical with us? I've been doing it for about six years now. The children play, the adults form the choir. We're giving a Christmas concert in the church to bring the whole village together."
When he performs with the Schuylenburg Choir for the Oener Rural Women and they ask him: will you come again next time, he says: but why don't you sing along yourself? They do. He conducts.
