Willem van Suijdam

Educational Background

He studied classical organ, conducting and piano at the Royal Conservatory in Zwolle (Netherlands) from 1974 to 1979, after that he studied jazz and theatre organ at the Royal Conservatories of Hilversum and Alkmaar (both Netherlands) between 1979 and 1981 and finally Willem van Suijdam studied Bach interpretation between 1981 and 1986 in Paris (France) under world-renowned organist Jean Guillou.

Musical career

Willem Van Suijdam is also the principal founder of the Liberation Choir in Canada and served as their conductor for 15 years. The Liberation Choir was one of Canada's premier choirs, in its glory days it had over 200 members, performed dozens of sold out concerts in Europe and Canada as well as the United States, Willem directed 3 sold out concerts in Hamilton Place with symphony orchestra, made TV specials for 100 Huntley Street and performed several concerts with the Guelph Symphony Orchestra, which Willem van Suijdam directed in combination with Simon Irving. The choir made 4 very successful European tours. In 1995 Willem had the honour to be chosen for the Arts Acclaim Award for the city of Brampton where he resided at the time.

Business Venture

After immigrating to Canada from the Netherlands in 1986, Willem founded his first organ store in 1989. He advises organ committees, sells pipe organs as well as digital organs and with his combination of business and knowing quality and value, he opened up a piano store called Pianohouse Burlington Inc. and owned it until 2009. It flourished under his skillful leadership just like Ontariopianos Inc. does now. He also imports pipe organs and Content digital organs for Organs.ca. Ontariopianos Inc. specializes in the complete remanufacturing of Steinway & Sons, Bosendorfer Bechstein and other fine pianos.