He was a member of the Hague rock band Golden Earring from 1970.
He started playing guitar at the age of eleven. Two years later, he switched to drums. He played drums successively for a school band, The Ladybirds, Hu & The Hilltops, and Livin’ Blues.
In 1970, he was asked by Golden Earring to succeed Sieb Warner. Musically and socially, Zuiderwijk proved to be the perfect addition to the trio of George Kooymans, Barry Hay, and Rinus Gerritsen. Apart from two temporary five-man lineups featuring Robert Jan Stips and Eelco Gelling, the Earring has consisted of these four friends ever since. Zuiderwijk added an increasingly long drum solo to the performances, which he concluded by launching himself over his drum kit.
In 1985, Zuiderwijk played together with jazz musician Jasper van ‘t Hof in the one-off collaboration Labyrinth. Julya Lo’ko was recruited as the singer. During this period, he caused a stir with his equipment, which included disco drums, red triggered Perspex cubes, and a drum jacket equipped with sensors for electronic drums. In 1985, Zuiderwijk founded the Hague music store Rock Palace together with bassist Rinus Gerritsen. The store on Torenstraat became a meeting place for musicians from The Hague.
Zuiderwijk was also active as a teacher. In September 1992, a dream came true for him when he performed music and Radar Love together with a thousand drummers on a floating pontoon in the Maas River in Rotterdam. In 1999, he was invited by War Child to give drum lessons to children traumatized by war in the Bosnian city of Mostar. He took advantage of the Earring’s hiatus year to go on tour with Percossa in 2000. The theater program “Alle gekheid met een stokje” (All the craziness with a stick), consisting of sketches, drumming escapades, and anecdotes, was an unexpected success. The show has also been released on DVD. It was re-released quite some time ago, this time with a different cover image.
On May 1, 2006, the Rotterdam branch of Music Station opened, and music lessons can now be taken there as well. On June 3, 2006, Cesar took to the stage again with the Clarks at the Kaderock festival in The Hague. Since September 2006, Cesar has been touring with his theater program Slagdroom, this time solo without accompaniment. In 2007, the drummer received the Culture Prize of the City of The Hague. The prize consists of a sculpture and a cash award of 25,000 euros.
In 2019, Zuiderwijk started the musical project Sloper together with the Flemish drummer Mario Goossens (Triggerfinger). In 2020, the debut EP Sloper was released on the independent record label Suburban. Since 2022, Cesar Zuiderwijk has been responsible for judging the tribute bands in the SBS6 program The Tribute: Battle of the Bands.
