our Musical Director since January 2007:

Han-Louis Meijer was born 1956 in Amsterdam. He began his piano study at the age of 7 and at the age of 17 he was enrolled into the Sweelinck Academy of Music in Amsterdam. He studied under the tuition of Jan Wijn and graduated as a teacher in 1978 and as a soloist in 1980.  He was invited by Hans Broekman to study Accompaniment and graduated in 1982. During this study he worked with dignitaries such as; Felix de Nobel, Herman Krebbers, Rudolf Jansen and Sandor Vegh. After this study Han-Louis was taught the tricks of the trade by maestro Thom Bollen. He was invited to be one of the accompanists during the Master classes of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (1984 and 1986) and also during the International Vocalist Competition in ’s Hertogenbosch. Han Louis performed with celebrities like soprano Inessa Galante, mezzo-soprano Gail Gilmore, tenors Neil Shicoff, and Bruno Sebastian, bass-baritone Edmund Tolliver and Master violinist Maxim Vengerov.

In The Netherlands he has been working with, amongst others, Frans Fiselier, Leo Geers, Harry v/d Plas, Ruxandra Voda and Marten Smeding for years. At the age of 16 he started conducting (Bijlmer Operetta and Protestant Church Choir Amstelveen) and has worked from 1992 to the beginning of 1994 as assistant choirmaster at the Dutch Opera in Amsterdam. From 1989 until 2002 he worked intensely and with pleasure with the world renowned soprano Cristina Deutekom and he is still in weekly contact with her. Since 1994 he has been associated with the Royal Academy of Music in The Hague as lecturer of piano studies and a vocal-coach.
After accompanying our choir at several important concerts as pianist and teaching a few master classes, he became choir master and artistic leader of our male voice choir Gouda’s Liedertafel in January 2007.