Tjaco van der Weerd

Tjaco van der Weerd was born in 1990 in Sri Lanka and in the same year adopted. Early  musical interests crossed the head. As a young boy he enjoyed all the wonderful sounds of the 3-keyboard Reil Coff-organ in the Reformed Church in Kampen. The at that moment less seeing Tjaco started to learn songs, psalms and spiritual songs on piano and organ. The challenge to develop his hearing and musicality grew stronger when he turned blind on his seventh year of age.

At the age of nine Tjaco got the chance to piano lessons at the music school in his hometown Kampen. Here he met, with Hans Bos, the basics of music theory. After two years pianolesson and completing his A-diploma degree with Cum Laude first piano improvisation for young talent, he met with the famous four-keyboard Hinz- organ in the Bovenkerk te Kampen the  famous organist John Propitius. At the request of Tjaco to teach him to play organ, John was only too happy to. Tjaco 2002 reaffirmed his school career continued to Bartiméus institute for the blind and visually impaired, in Zeist. This forced him to end the piano lessons at the musicschool, but the organ lessons with John Propitius could still be continued.

In 2003 Tjaco starts with giving organ concerts. Several times he accompanied the choir from St. DEV Annaland in Zeeland(Netherlands) including the 3-keyboard Van Dam-organ in the Grote Kerk and the Oekelen-organ in the Reformed Church, both in Tholen. Also, he cooperated with the accompanying singing evenings in the Grote of  Maria Magdalena Kerk in Goes and  the Grote Kerk in Maassluis.

The concert in 2004 requests were numerous. This year he worked for the first time with the television program "Nederland Zingt”. Late 2004 he took his first solo CD by playing the very famous Rudolph Knol-organ in the St.Stephanuskerk in Hasselt (Overijssel-NL),. The recording was made two days after the devastating tsunami (December 26, 2004) which also Tjaco's native Sri Lanka severely afflicted. Tjaco decided to donate proceeds from the CD in aid to Sri Lanka.

In 2005 he began to follow organ lessons with  Jasper Stam. Here he learned mostly theory, approximation theory and improvisation in various styles. In this year he ran organ placement with Johannes-orgelbouw(Digital Electronic organbuilder) in Ede. Here he learned to intone and to repaire organs. In his spare time he tinkers regularly organs and pianos. Especially his own in 2006 purchased Monarke organ.

After four years as a organ scolar with John Propitius, in 2006 he stopped those lessons. Even the lessons were stopped with Jasper Stam to take training classes with Geerten Liefting who was a student at the Utrecht Conservatory (HKU) at that time. This student learned Tjaco further ”tricks of the trade” and prepared Tjaco for the conservatory, which he hopes to follow. He also took a masterclass with the blind organist Paul Houdijk by learning spoken sheet music.

In early 2007 came the news that Tjaco’s biological mother is still alive and had been found. In order to travel to Sri Lanka, money was needed. Tjaco went merrily on with giving concerts, the proceeds for his trip to Sri Lanka was intended. From a concert in the Reformed Church in Kampen is a live CD recording made. In August 2007 the meeting with his biological mother finally took place.

Early 2010 Tjaco stopped taking lessons with Geerten Liefting to continue to follow those with the blind conservatory teacher, Henco de Berg. With him, Tjaco is going to adopt Braille music-writing. Then he hopes to achieve the bachelor degree, as a musical performer, with the Tilburg Conservatory.

In recent years he worked  including with Marco den Toom, Harm Hoeve, Noortje van Middelkoop and the famous trumpet duo Arjan and Edith Post. He conducted well known choirs as Deo Juvante (Huizen) and Deo Juvante (Kesteren).

Just a little back in time. In 2007, after four years working under his own name, Tjaco invented a company name called Cumara-Music. Now in 2010 things are going so well that he can work fullime in music, so that the move to an official independent entrepreneur quickly made and the name of his company now officially is called KUMARA MUSIC.