HISTORY Van Hakken Komt Blazen

The basis for founding the Midwinterhorn guild Van Hakken Komt Blazen, VHKB, lies in the winter of 2013. Piet Zomerdijk, an avid nature lover, took a walk in the woods in the east of the Netherlands.He regularly heard a strange melancholic sound. He went in search of this sound and ended up with a pair of midwinter horn players. An animated conversation ensued and the result was that he eventually took a course in midwinter horn building and blowing. 

This has led to the fact that since 2013 there are almost 100 people who have followed the midwinter horn building course and made one or more horns. Each following winter, the group of active blowers grew larger. At the moment there are 35, including four women. From the first Sunday of Advent, at the end of November, until Epiphany, January 6, you can hear the melancholic sound of the midwinterhorn in various places in Alkmaar and the surrounding area.

 Within the group of wind players, two members have taken the initiative to build an alphorn. After a few years of practice, it came to small performances. In January 2020, the initiative was taken to build a new series of alp horns. A very laborious process. Nine copies were made, so-called F-horns, with a length of 3.60 meters. These builders are now practicing a lot, they hope to be ready for a first performance by the end of 2023.