From early childhood Van den Heuvel felt a special affinity with symphonic organ music. At the age of sixteen he went to work for Flentrop in Zaandam in the Netherlands. He persisted in his championship of the romantic organ in the face of Flentrop's neo-baroque ideals and finally in 1967 he registered himself as an independant organ builder. At that time he was twenty which made hime the youngest organ builder in the Netherlands. In that same year, Jan constructed his first organ (one manual and pedal, 10 stops) which recieved immediate admiration for its melodious voicing and solid mechanical construction. The actual construction activities took place in part of his fathers workshop as painter. As a result of the numerous positive reactions, Jan was commissioned to build a new three manual organ of 32 stops for the Singelkerk at Ridderkerk. This was a fantastic opportunity for the young organbuilder, as he was not only responsible for the design and construction of the instrument, but he also made the richly profiled organcase and woodcarvings.