Groeneweg 22
8911 EJ Leeuwarden
T: +31 (0)58 – 289 48 76
M: +31 (0)6 – 36 12 46 85
E: info@boeijengamusic.com
CoC: 60318023
VAT: NL001391787B85
The history of Boeijenga Music
Boeijenga's Boek- en Muziekhandel was founded in 1887 by Johannes Willem Boeijenga, originally a silversmith and engraver. Starting a bookstore turned out to be a good move. In 1901, son Fedde Boeijenga (2nd generation) also joined the business. A mail order bookshop was set up next to the shop, while people also traveled around the province of Friesland to sell books. In the meanwhile, the Boeijengas had also started a publishing house.
Around 1926, at the age of fifteen, the third Boeijenga generation, Johannes Willem, son of Fedde, was taken into the company. In fact, against his will and thanks, because Johannes Willem had received a musical education with the aim of earning his living as a musician. He studied in Leeuwarden with Jan Paardekooper and later with his successor George Stam. When Johannes Willem completed his music studies, however, there was little employment for musicians and his father therefore thought it better that he also join the business. Yet it was his father Fedde who started selling music books towards the end of the twenties of the last century – on the Kleinzand in Sneek – while his brother Johannes aan het Grootzand continued to run the stationery store. That lasted until 1930. Then Johannes went into journalism and those activities came to an end.
The bad thirties arrived. The mail order book trade continued to deteriorate, but the trade in music literature continued to improve. Popular tunes, church anthologies and things like that sold quickly. Father Boeijenga started selling publications that could not be obtained anywhere else. Given his musical background, his son Johannes Willem focused on music publishing. After his father died in 1954, the expansion of the music trade only started well. International contacts were made. There were especially good ties with universities in America. Imports started from countries such as Spain, Portugal, Germany and France. Boeijenga's activities began to attract attention abroad and the trade in music literature became increasingly important. They published their own information sheet, after first working with separate stencils. In addition to sheet music, books about music history and about organ building, for example, were also sold.
In 1969 Fedde Boeijenga (4th generation) was included in the business. When his father died, he and his mother continued the business. After her death, he ran the business all by himself. He passed away very suddenly in April 2004 at the age of 56. He himself was a bachelor and because no successor could be found in the family, a long family tradition came to an end with his death. Fortunately, this does not apply to the company. Boeijenga's Boek- en Muziekhandel was taken over by Wybe Sierksma, an amateur church organist in his fifties, who, after a career of thirty years in accountancy and organizational advice, wanted to give his life a different meaning. Together with his son Arjen, he continued the activities and also gave a new impulse by publishing both sheet music for organ and (on a modest scale) publishing DVD and CD productions about the organ and its music.
In 2005 the store moved to a beautiful monumental building in Veenhuizen, located in the province of Drenthe. Due to better accessibility, the store moved again in 2011, this time to Leeuwarden in a building close to the historic center. There too, relations (both from home and abroad) know where to find Boeijenga Muziek as usual.
As of January 1, 2014, one of the employees of Boeijenga Muziek – Jochem Schuurman – took over the store from Wybe Sierksma, to hand over the baton to Peter van der Zwaag, also a former employee. Since January 1, 2016, he is the new owner of Boeijenga Music and since 2019 also of the publishing activities, under the name of Boeijenga Music Publications.