Ridderkerk, Dutch Reformed St. Joris Church or Singel Church (32/III/P, 1972)

In June 1970 the building of the St. Joris or Singelkerk organ in Ridderkerk was commissioned. Previous to this the 23 year-old Jan van den Heuvel had presented a design to the church council which was to their complete satisfaction and was granted the commission. He began this work alone (this was his first large commission) and the organ was almost entirely hand-crafted by him. In addition to the mechanics of the organ, he also designed a new mahogany case and balcony, and hand-crafted all the decorative woodcarving, which is completely gold plated.

The organ has three manual divisions of 56 notes and a Pedal of 30 notes. The Rugpositief has 8 stops, the Hoofdwerk 9 stops, the Bovenwerk also 8 stops and the Pedaal 7 stops, altogether 32 stops. The character of the approximately 2.200 pipes are based on the accoustical qualities of the church. This organ has the largest front (247 pipes) built in the Netherlands since the second world war.

The internal layout of the instrument is almost clear when you have a look at the front picture. The Rugpositief is in the (small) case on the gallery, the Hoofdwerk in the center, above the Hoofdwerk the Bovenwerk and on each side of the Hoofdwerk the Pedaal. The console and all the action is made in classical Dutch style.

The inauguration took place on November 11th and 12th, 1972.