A multi-award winner, Jan Overduin won the Healey Willan Prize in 1963; the International Organ Competition in London, Ontario (1967), second prize and finals in improvisation; the Festival of Flanders International Organ Competition in Bruges, Belgium (1970), finals; and the St. Alban's International Organ Competition (1973), shared main prize, finals in improvisation, and the audience prize. He has been the recipient of several Canada Council awards for studies abroad during the 1960's, allowing him to study with, among others, Marie-Claire Alain, Jean Langlais and Peter Hurford.

Jan Overduin has appeared in recital on the BBC, the Belgian Radio Network, CBC (Talent Festival, Organists in Recital, Radio Free Berlin, and Arts National), as well as on Canadian TV. He has been featured at several RCCO Conventions.

He is the author of “Making Music – Improvisation for Organists” (OUP, 1998), a distillation of 25 years of teaching improvisation at Wilfrid Laurier University to students of widely varying musical backgrounds and ability.

Jan Overduin was University Organist and Professor (and Chair) of the Organ and Church Music Department at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, where he also conducted the WLU Chapel Choir. He served as Director of Music at St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Kitchener for over 12 years, and as Director of Music at First United Church in Waterloo, where under his supervision a 44-stop tracker-action organ by Gabriel Kney was installed in 2004. In 2005 the Kitchener-Waterloo Arts Foundation honoured him with its “Lifetime Achievement Award”.