The Start
Soli Deo Gloria is one of the youngest choirs of the former island of Urk. It was founded in 1997 by some friends. Since then, the choir is led by musician Jaap Kramer. From the early start of the choir commitment to quality has been an important goal. That commitment has made Soli Deo Gloria one of the most famous christian choirs in the Netherlands.

Concerts.
Soli Deo Gloria has given many concerts, mainly in The Netherlands. On average the choir gives 10 to 15 concerts each year. Soli Deo Gloria is a welcome guest on Dutch television. They made several TV appearances in the Dutch program “Nederland Zingt”. In 2002 a succesful concert tour was made to Ontario, Canada. In 2015 the choir will undertake a second concert tour to Canada celebrating the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands.

Rehearsal.
The men of Soli Deo Gloria rehearse every sunday afternoon, from 2.30 till 4 pm. The choir as 23 members at this moment, and doesn’t take new members. We believe our strength is in our size. We strive for quality, not quantity.

Clothes.
The choir performs in the traditional costume of the former Island of Urk. This costume consist of traditional black shoes and socks, black pants with big silver buttons and a red striped shirt with golden buttons and a black scarf. The choir also has a second set of modern, contemporary clothes which are mainly used for TV recordings.

Earrings.
What about those earrings? Why do so many members of the choir wear them? Those are questions we often receive from our audience. The answer is: it’s an old local tradition. The former island of Urk is a fishermen’s community. The earrings used to be an insurance. Should a fisherman drown at sea, and later on found, the earring could be used as means for identification. And the earring could be used to pay for a decent funeral. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.