News
26.04.2019 Pachelbel’s Canon reimagined
Merel and I got the opportunity to rearrange an extremely well known piece of music for the radio programme Muziekfabriek on Dutch NPO Radio 4. We decided to use a work that is extremely well known: Pachelbel’s Canon ;) Check out our reimagining of it here!
30.03.2019 Dutch Double Bass Festival: the second edition
I am over the moon that after the joyously whirlwind experience of the first edition of the Dutch Double Bass Festival two years ago, we will now be having a second edition this June!
The festival this year will be taking place in Rotterdam at two venues that are directly across from one another in the heart of the city: Oude Luxor Theater, and Villa Thalia.
On the 8th and 9th of June you will be treated to an absolute smörgåsbord of the best in bass from around the world. Classical music, jazz and contemporary will all be represented as well as the bass guitar.
For those of you who may be apprehensive of all that bass, don’t be! The line-up is fantastic and the programme is varied!
Dominic Seldis will be bringing the basses of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to open the festival with a concert filled with some of the best bassists of the Netherlands, with some possible (non-bassist ;) special guests. Rick Stotijn will be collaborating with the wonderful Matangi Quartet feat. Marijn van Prooijen for a Sunday morning concert not to be missed. World star Richard Bona will be performing at the festival with the Richard Bona Group. Renaud Garcia-Fons will be giving a concert with his Revoir Paris trio and Omer Avital will be bringing his Qantar quartet for a Saturday night concert. I will of course also be making a contribution with my own group.
This is just a selection of what will be taking place at the festival so if this whets your appetite please check the website out for the full line-up and programme and hopefully I will see you at one or both of the festival days! :)
14.02.2019 Residency at the radio4 OpiumAtelier
Last week I had the opportunity to be the weekly artist-in-residence at radio4’s Opium Atelier.
Every week as part of the nightly radio programme, Opium, an artist is invited to spend the week in the Opium Atelier, a week that is then entirely at the disposal of the artist to spend on their work. Seeing as my project with neuroscientist and former athlete Beorn Nijenhuis, had just begun – a project in which my stress levels and practise regime will be studied for the coming months and later manipulated in the hopes
to finding what the optimal practise and time management methods are to better a musician – it seemed like a perfect opportunity to spend the week practising! So, armed with a schedule that Beorn had devised for me for the week, I spent my days practising, meditating and in general being much more efficient than I’m used to!
At the end of the week I got to discuss the experience with Beorn and Annemieke Bosman during Friday nights broadcast of the programme.
For more info on the experience or to listen to any of the interviews, check Opium Atelier’s site here!
01.02.2019 6 month practise project
Starting this coming Monday, my exciting new project in which neuroscientist and former Olympic athlete Beorn Nijenhuis will be tracking my practise time and using my biofeedback data to continually adjust my schedule will begin!
What should I do when it’s the end of the day, I’m super tired but I HAVE to practise? Why does the feeling of being unprepared not seem to always correlate terribly well with actually being unprepared? Why does it sometimes feel like 20 minutes of practise can produce better results than 2 hours can? When i have the luxury of a whole day free to practise, what is really the optimal way of setting that day up so that I get the best out of my time spent with my instrument but don’t feel so exhausted that the next day has to be spent doing nothing or in a constant state of fatigue? I’m so hoping to have at least some answers to these questions at the end of this six month period in which I will be working closely with Beorn and tracking my practise and schedule in its minutiae: equal parts terribly frightening and terribly exciting.
I got the chance to announce the project this morning on De Ochtend van 4 on NPO Radio 4 (listen back in this link) and this whole adventure would not be possible without the support of the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Marti Keuning Eckhardt Stichting, Stichting SEC and the Olland Buisman Stichting!
07.01.2019 Mittenwald International Double Bass Masterclass
Later this year I will be one of the teachers giving masterclasses at theMittenwald International Double Bass Masterclass from August 5th to 10th. I am honoured to have been asked to come and teach for a few days and am truly looking forward to the experience. I will be teaching alongside Jeff Bradetitch, Andreas Bennetzen, Alex Bayer and Alexis Scharff and more info on the masterclasses can be found here!
