‘Ladies first’ – a female perspective on organ culture
by Peter Ouwerkerk |Het ORGEL |Year 122 |(2026) |Issue 2| Categorie No category, The gallery
Maria Elizabeth Bastiaans (1847–1897), dochter van Johannes Gijsbertus, was van 1866 tot 1876 organist van de Grote of St.-Clemenskerk te Steenwijk en behoort daarmee waarschijnlijk tot de eerste vrouwen met een officiële aanstelling als organist.
Is it a coincidence? In 2025, shortly after one another and independently, several meetings took place in which more or less the same subject was on the agenda: the future of the organ. In May around thirty colleagues gathered in the Pieterskerk in Utrecht, where inspiring accounts were shared about education, heritage preservation and expanding audience reach. In Wageningen a public event took place with a discussion on partly the same themes, which was extensively reported in Het Orgel. At around the same time, a discussion was held at the National Organ Museum in Elburg about the position the museum wishes to occupy within the future of Dutch organ culture.