History

At the end of the year 1967, an aunt and uncle, without children, celebrate their golden wedding. Their names: aunt Lida and uncle Koen van Gemeren, one of the 11 children of Pieter van Gemeren and Jansje Lodders, from Pernis, a small town close to Rotterdam, Holland.
The party was a good reason to invite the whole family: brothers, sisters, cousins. Two cousins, Gerard Strootman and Alice van der Meijde, decided to do something special for this music-loving uncle. They had the idea to set up a choir, especially for this event. A choir, with only members of the Van Gemeren family. Because somebody had to conduct this choir, Alice said to Gerard: “you play organ, so you know something about music, so why don’t you conduct this choir? It’s only for once!”.
In a small room in a flat in Rotterdam the “choir” started practising. And, indeed, on uncle Koen’s party the choir was not bad. The audio tapes are still there of this performance. Uncle Koen said, when he heard this: “you have to continue this choir! It’s good for the family relations, and maybe someday you can be heard on the radio, or even seen on television!”.
Gerard and the choir decided to continue. With about 30 members the choir was officially founded.
And the choir was successful. Some different churches asked the choir to perform in their services.
The first journey goes to France, in 1971, to perform for the Dutch community, south of Paris.
In 1972 the choir was invited for the first appearance on Dutch Television, in the talkshow of Gerard van den Berg, called “People, people, people…”. During these first years the choir has made several journeys to France, but also in the Netherlands the choir became more known, especially after two performances in the TV-shows of the in Holland well known Mies Bouwman.
In 1977 the first album was recorded, called “Children of one father”, with an orchestra. This album was produced by Gé Voskuylen of Mirasound productions, who produced all the albums of this choir.
Liesbeth Strootman, 11 years old, of course also a Van Gemeren, was discoverd: with her pure voice she was allowed to sing solo on this album. And now, after many years, she still is the lead-solo singer of the choir.
Many activities were made by the choir. For example the performance in a Christmas-service on the Nato Headquarters in Belgium. The planning was to bring the choir to Belgium with a helicopter, but finally this was not possible so the choir went by bus.
Also an appearance on French Television, in the talkshow of Jaques Martin. Here the choir performed among other artists like Marianne Faithfull and Julio Eglesias. In this program the choir sang the tittle-song of their album “A wonderful day”.
In 1980 the choir celebrates the 12 ½ year anniversary, with a concert in the old church of Amersfoort. The choir had 50 members at that moment. For conductor Gerard Strootman the choir has become his main activity. His regular work he only saw as his hobby. A lot of work must be done for a choir like this: arrance concerts, organising of trips, selecting repertoire, motivate the members. But, he likes to do this, supported by his wife Gerda. Cousin Koen Vliegenthart, who is responsible for the finance of the choir, is a great help for him.
In 1982 and also in 1983 the choir has the opportunity to perform in the prime-time show of Ted de Braak on Dutch TV. And, in 1983, the choir got a listing in the dutch version of the “Guinness Book of Records”, as the world largest family choir. This was a reason for another dutch TV program to invite the choir. Name of this record-winners program: “the first, the best”.
Another two albums were recorded in this period: “Family Song”, with Christian repertoire, and “Reunion”, with old-Dutch songs.
In 1985 the choir has a small dip. The only until now. Much was reached, but how to continue?
Then there was the idea to record a Christmas album. This was a great idea. An album was recorded with much variety: the whole choir, the soloists, groups of singers. And different styles: the old-Dutch songs, but also modern English songs. Again a TV-performance, now in the show of Willem Duys. And then, in 1988, the choir could do something that’s usually only for top-artists: the making of a TV-special, of 25 minutes. The choir contacted Paul Molijn, one of the best Dutch art directors, specialised in music specials. With him the choir went to Austria to make a very fine Christmas-TV special, in the snow. The program was broadcasted in 1988 and repeated in 1989.
The LP “Chrismas with the family” was in that time also released as CD, being the first Dutch CD with choirmusic.
A second CD was recorded. Now with only fil- and musical songs. Name of the CD: “the Sound of Movies”, with songs from (of course) “the Sound of Music”, and songs like “I’m singin in the rain” and “Blue Moon”. The contact with Paul Molijn gave the idea to make another TV special, now with this CD as basis. The first idea was to make the recordings in the original settings in Hollywood, California. But, the Gulf war in 1991 gave problems: nobody dared to fly to the US in that period. So the plan was changed, and finally the special was recorded in Austria (Salzburg), Paris, Israel and locations in the Netherlands. A new idea was added to the choir: the founding of the “Van Gemeren Children Choir”, of course only with the (smaller) members of the Van Gemeren Family.
The in april 1992 broadcasted TV special gave in that week the highest appreciation-score of the Dutch public.
Contacts of Koen Vliegenthart with the Dutch retail-company Zeeman textielSupers brought new activities. Zeeman was the sponsor of solo sea-sailor Henk de Velde, who tried to break the record solo-sailing non stop around the world. To support this project in the Zeeman shops, two CD’s were recorded by the choir, with all songs that have something to do with the sea, like “I am sailing”, and also the, especially for this project composed “Catamaran Song”. The choir could show up in a few TV-programs about this project. The music of the choir could now for the first time be made by two members of the choir, Chris Meijer and Eric Strootman. They have build a professional music studio, named “Compact Studio”. Nowadays they do not only work for the choir, but also for some other artists.
Also for Zeeman, in 1993, the choir could make the next CD, called “Christmas Feelings”. Of the last 3 CD’s were in total more than 46.000 pieces sold!
The next idea has come to a yearly traditions: the organising of a Christmas concert, in famous Dutch churches. Starting in 1993 in Moordrecht, later in the big St.Laurens church in Rotterdam, the St.Jans church in Gouda and the New Church in Delft, that's also kwown for the Dutch Royal Cemetery, located in this church. Every year the concerts become more professional, with every year even more atmosphere.
Trips are regularly organised, and every trip is a happening. For example the week to Czech, in winter 1996: a week with wintersport, and a performance in the National Museum in Prague. The whole choir, with 90 people, was fitting exactly in one hotel
In the previous years the choir has specialized in repertoire written by Tom Parker. He makes new, modern arrangements of classical melodies with new but known songtexts. The choir has recorded a new CD ("Love will have it's day) with this repertoire. In 2003 the choir performed in a TV-program on Dutch TV called Tuti Family where you could see how a choire like this is practising the singing and performance of a song.
In 2006 the Van Gemeren Family Choir recorded the first DVD with an overview of the 40-year history of the choir. 16 songs were recorded on different locations in the Netherlands. The 40-years anniversery was celebrated during a harbour cruise in Rotterdam with a concert aboqrd.
In April/May 2008 the choir will make a journey to Canada. Concerts will be arranged in Toronto and Grimsby.
New activities ask their attention, and are necessary to keep the choir alive. Of course the rehearsal, every fortnight, is already a family-reunion, but the weekend-trips and concerts make the family-ties better and better. And, Gerard Strootman is now after almost 40 years, still the driving force for the choir. Because he could retire early, he is now full-time busy with this choir. And, plans are always there. Check out the news-page on this site for more information about the actual plans!