Lenard Verkamman
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Lenard Verkamman (October 19, 1968 in Poortugaal) went to organ concerts from a young age with his father, featuring artists such as Feike Asma, Klaas J. Mulder, and Willem H. Zwart. These gifted organists made a great impression and inspired him.
Lenard received his first organ lessons at the age of 8 from the local music teacher/organist Mr. Kerkfoort. It quickly became clear that besides classical works, he especially favored choral arrangements of psalms and hymns. At the age of 12, he studied with Bas de Vroome (Rhoon) mainly focusing on technique and literature.
Because Lenard wanted to further improve his improvisation techniques and accompaniment for singing, he took lessons for many years from Nico Kruithof (Ridderkerk).
Lenard was the registrant for the Canadian organist André Knevel for 5 years. After that, he was the permanent registrant for Pieter Heykoop (Yerseke) for over 13 years. Through these experiences, he learned a lot about registration (timbre) on the beautiful organs that we know in the Netherlands. Later, he took some improvisation and literature lessons with Marco den Toom.
In addition, Lenard has been the church organist for 13.5 years at the Reformed Church in Poortugaal; after a move, he was also appointed as church organist at the Reformed Church in H’veld-Giessendam. Since the establishment (December 2, 2011) of the Reformed Church in Sliedrecht, he has been the organist of Boaz.
In 2004, Lenard released his first CD; a recording of a singing evening at the Old Church in Zwijndrecht. Several CDs followed later. As the demand for sheet music grew, he started writing; in 2013, the first collection of his own arrangements in notation and clavier was published.
