Organ Lunchbreakconcert with Willeke Smits

Willeke Smits is organist of the Hooglandse Kerk in Leiden. She is the regular player of the monumental De Swart-Van Hagerbeer organ and the late 19th-century Father-Willis organ. She is also the regular accompanist of the Leidse Cantorij conducted by Hans Brons.Willeke studied organ with Kees van Houten and Reitze Smits, church music with Bernard Winsemius and choral conducting with Krijn Koetsveld at the Utrecht Conservatory. She then continued her studies in choral conducting with Joop Schets and piano with Geoffrey Madge. She participated in competitions in Arnhem, Leiden and Nijmegen and in 2017 Willeke was a finalist of the ‘International Sweelinck Competition’ in Amsterdam and Haarlem.

As an ambassador of the organ, Willeke is active as a concert organist at home and abroad, in which a challenging programming based on the character of the instrument is central. In addition, she is active as a teacher and musical coach from young to old, where the road to musical pleasure is the goal. Willeke was a member of the editorial board ‘Psalms differently’, a supplement to the Songbook Singing and praying in home and church, which was published in 2022. Melodies of a number of these newly arranged psalms are from her hand. In the first episode of the successful podcast of the EO ‘Alle registers open’ she could be heard with her musical life story.

Since 2024, Willeke has been a member of the Steering Committee of the Northern European Cathedrals Conference, where professionals and stakeholders within Northern European cathedrals and inner-city churches meet and engage in dialogue. The conference provides a dynamic platform for sharing insights, experiences and stimulating development and takes place every two years in a changing Northern European city.

Willeke released several CDs, of which the CD with organ works by Hendrik Andriessen received a 10 in the magazine Luister. She released a double CD with works by Johann Gottfried Walther, an underrated contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach, who was praised with a 10+ in the magazine De Orgelvriend. No less successful is the release of ‘Happiness’, a CD that makes you happy! In 2022 ‘SWEELINCK TO BACH’ was released, a CD with music by Sweelinck, Van Noordt, Reincken, Buxtehude, Böhm, Steigleder and Bach on the De Swart-Van Hagerbeer organ from ca. 1565/1637 of the Hooglandse Kerk in Leiden.