Hello everyone,

My name is John van Kleef, live in the town of Gouda (yes, the famous
cheese town) in Holland, and I've just joined this great organisation
'Mechanical Music Digest'. I'm 33 years young and have a broad field of
interests and activities within the mechanical music world.

First of all I am an arranger / noteur for the dutch street organs. I've
been doing this since I was 14 years old. I studied classical piano at
the conservatorium of Rotterdam, but was not able to finish this school
because my parents migrated to Australia in 1980. In Australia I became
a professional musician, playing piano / organ at shopping malls,
restaurants, cocktail bars etc. I also toured around Aussie as concert
artist for Yamaha Music Australia, demonstrating new product. I also got
involved with various theatre organ societies and gave concerts on
various Wurlitzers, Compton's, and Christies around the country.

Returned to Holland in 1989 (due to illness).  Nowadays I do all of the
above mentioned except play theatre organ (haven't found time for that
yet!). The other thing I do lately is specializing in digital recordings
of acoustic instruments. The CD production of the "Dulciaan" (Elbert
Pluer Organbuilder) is one of my productions.

Soon I hope to have my very own home-page up and running. I'm not a very
good computer programmer, so I'm still looking for someone who wants to
help me with the photo's, graphics, sound fragments and other gadgets!
When I've got it running, I'll let you know in these articles. There
will be a Dutch AND and English version.

Well, I'll leave it at that for now, I will be reading the newsletters
with great interest, and if there's anything that I can be of assistance
with or that I know the answers to, I'll be more than happy to respond.

Goodbye for now.....
With musical greetings.....

John van Kleef