Workshop

The reason we moved to Zutphen in 1982 was that it reminded my wife and me so much of Bruges in Belgium. This town is very dear to us because of the Festival of Ancient Music we visited many times. By chance we found a workshop and a house to live in on opposite sides of the street.

The workshop was in a dilapidated state, the inside was one big room with dirt as a floor and you could see the inside of the roof tiles from below. It was used as a caravan storage. After renovation we could rent it. Because I still had a half job as librarian I looked for fellow builders to share the building. The first one was Jan Bouterse , who made recorders and a bit later the bow maker André Klaassen , who initially made hurdy-gurdies, joined us. The first two years I continued working half time in the library, from November 1984 on I worked full time in the workshop. Colleagues came and went again, and at this moment I have the ground floor and André Klaasen works on the first floor.

My workshop consists of two rooms. The smaller room is facing the street. In this room I can receive people and play my rental harpsichord. Because there is less dust I paint and voice the harpsichords in this room. The lids you can see here were painted by my father, who did a lot of decoration on my harpsichords. The larger room at the back is the proper workshop.