Festivo

Adriaan C. Schuurman

Adriaan C. Schuurman could be considered as the father of the Protestant church song.
Few people have shown more interest nor exploited more activities in this field than he did.
After secondary school he studied at the Conservatories of The Hague and Amsterdam, amongst others with Johan Wagenaar, Cornelis de Wolf and Sem Dresden.
As a teacher of church music, he taught at several universities and conservatories as well as the Theological Seminary in Driebergen.

Beside works for organ and choir he composed many melodies for the Dutch Reformed songbook of 1938 and the Songbook for the Churches.
He was an organist in Schiedam and Lochem and a cantor organist of the St. Joris Church in Amersfoort from 1942 to 1950 and also of the Maranatha Church in The Hague from 1950 to 1974.
At the same time, he was an esteemed conductor of oratorio choirs.