Heerde is a municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands. Compared to the rest of the Netherlands, Heerde is fairly religious, as are many of the towns and cities in the Veluwe region.
Merlijn Twaalfhoven is a Dutch composer. He graduated from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in 2003. Twaalfhoven is internationally active in creating innovative projects and writing new music for orchestras, choirs and chamber music groups. He collaborated with Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Holland Festival, Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest, the Dutch National Ballet and Springdance festival, among many others. With his non profit organization La Vie Sur Terre he frequently produces large scale projects on location with local artists and musicians, for example in Cyprus, Japan, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Syria, and Central Europe. Twaalfhoven is a member of the Alpbach Laxenburg Group. He was a speaker about the role of arts in conflict areas at Aspen Institute Washington and Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, CO. In 2014 and 2015, Merlijn Twaalfhoven created "Bridging The Divide", a conversation with Tomáš Sedláček and Gloria Benedikt, linking economics and the irrational, positioning artists as agents of change. He was co-founder of Citizen Artist Incubator together with Gloria Benedikt, which was funded by Creative Europe and brought together 30 artists in two editions. The 2016 of Citizen Artist Incubator took place at IIASA. Twaalfhoven was a speaker about the role of arts in conflict areas at Aspen Institute Washington, TEDx Amsterdam, the European Forum on Culture 2013, 2016 and Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado, U.S.A. In 2017 he founded the Turn Club.
Richèl Hogenkamp is an inactive Dutch professional tennis player. Her highest WTA singles ranking is 94, which she reached on 24 July 2017. On the ITF Circuit, she has won 16 singles and 14 doubles titles.
Hans Vandekerckhove is a Belgian painter, living and working in Ghent. From 1975 to 1997 Vandekerckhove studied Art History at University Ghent, where he wrote his graduation thesis on David Hockney.
Annemarie Spilker is a Dutch photographer best known for her self-portraits and landscapes. Spilker attended The Photography Academy in Amsterdam where she graduated cum laude in 2003, with the series self-portraits "Searching to fill the emptiness..."
Jennifer Abel is a Canadian former diver. She is currently partnered with Mélissa Citrini-Beaulieu for synchronized diving. She won an Olympic bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 3 m synchro diving event with Émilie Heymans and a silver medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the same event with Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu. Abel is a four-time Commonwealth Games champion in the 1 m and 3 m synchronized springboard; and is also a three-time Pan American Games champion in the 3 m springboard and 3 m synchronized springboard. Her ten medals at the FINA World Championships are a record for most medals by a Canadian in diving at the world championships.
Shanice Janice van de Sanden is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a forward for Women's Super League club Liverpool and the Netherlands national team.
Marijke de Goey is a Dutch visual artist.
Jan Nicolaas van Munster is a Dutch sculptor and installation artist whose work appears in many public places in the Netherlands and Germany.
The Dutch Basketball League Most Valuable Player Award is an annual award given to the most valuable player in the Dutch highest professional basketball league. The award is given after the regular season and was first handed out in 1974. Six Dutch players have won the award so far, with Arvin Slagter being the last in 2014. Kees Akerboom, Sr. and Leon Rodgers (2005–2007) are the all-time leaders in Dutch MVP awards.
Maan de Steenwinkel, also known as simply Maan, is a Dutch singer and actress. De Steenwinkel first came to prominence after winning season six of The Voice of Holland. She has subsequently taken part in the Dutch television series De beste zangers van Nederland and in the Dutch version of Dance Dance Dance.
Marijke Moser, née Van de Graaf is a former Dutch-born Swiss middle and long distance runner. She has campaigned for women to enter races on the same terms as men. She was the first woman to run a marathon in under three hours.
Paulus "Paul" Blokhuis is a Dutch politician who served as State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport in the Third Rutte cabinet from 2017 to 2022. He is a member of the Christian Union (CU).
Kamiel Verschuren is a Dutch conceptual interdisciplinary visual artist, living and working in Rotterdam.
Airco Caravan is a painter and conceptual artist based in Amsterdam and New York City.
Marijke Fleuren is the president of the European Hockey Federation (EHF) and International Hockey Federation (FIH) Executive Board member. She became Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 2014.
Marijke Groenewoud is a Dutch long-distance long-track speed skater and inline speed skater. She was part of Team FrySk and of marathon team Royal A-ware. As of 2020 she is part of Team Zaanlander, trained by Jillert Anema.
Anne-Marijke Podt is a Dutch politician of the social liberal party Democrats 66 (D66), who has been serving as a member of the House of Representatives since September 2021. She had previously been a member of the Utrecht municipal council starting in 2014, and she has worked as an aid worker and as an independent adviser for municipalities.
Stien den Hollander, known professionally as S10, is a Dutch singer, rapper and songwriter. She began her musical career in 2016, and was signed to the Dutch hip hop record label Noah's Ark in 2017. In 2019, she released her debut studio album Snowsniper, which went on to win an Edison Award. Den Hollander represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with the song "De diepte", the first Eurovision entry to be sung in the Dutch language since 2010.
