Rien van der Werff
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At the age of 7, I was voted in by the music teacher at primary school for his choir, the Christian Hague Boys' Choir conducted by Marius Borstlap.
That's where I learned to sing.
My interest was aroused by my father's conducting and that's what I wanted too!
He taught me the basics of conducting.
My first choir was in Rotterdam from our church.
At one point I was asked to join a choir in Scheveningen: Eben-Haëzer from the Reformed Church.
I started as a conductor on Wednesday, January 25, 1978 and I'm still the conductor to this day.
At a singing evening, a few children were sitting together at the front of the church pews.
When singing a Psalm, the children sang so clearly that I asked if there was a children's choir.
"No," said the chairman, Mr. Jan Den Heijer, "but next week you can come earlier."
The following week there were already 30 children and after a while the number had grown to about 50!
The name became Benjamin and the girls' choir also had the same name.
After a few years I started in Moerkapelle with the children's choir Asarela and youth choir Nethanja.
Later I was asked for the mixed choir Asaf from Moerkapelle.
Because of my many musical works and my volunteer work in my community I received a ribbon from His Majesty King Willem Alexander in 2013 with the mention of Member in the Order of Orange Nassau.
