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Jan Albert van Eyken studied at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1845 to 1846 and became organist at the Remonstrants Church in Amsterdam in 1848, at the Zuiderkerk in Rotterdam from 1853 and at the Reformed Church in Elberfeld from April 1854. Among his admirers was Robert Schumann. Schumann later wrote to Joseph Joachim: "He plays quite splendidly; in Rotterdam I heard him play fugues by Bach, also BACH fugues [by Schumann], the first and the last, on an organ worthy of him." Not far from Van Eyken's later place of work in Elberfeld was the headquarters of the organ-building firm of Richard Ibach (Oberbarmen), which built the magnificent organ for Bergen op Zoom four years before Van Eyken's death: a great early Romantic instrument on which Ute Gremmel-Geuchen brings out the best in the three great organ sonatas and other works by the composer.