Studies

I have studied children's psychology at home, in the evenings, while I was also studying piano and cello (minor) at the Conservatory in Tilburg. After two years I decited to continue my musical training at the Schumann Akademie in Utrecht, which I was able to combine with musicology at the university in the same city. There I also followed a minor in Celtic. After four years in Utrecht, I am now busy with an extra master in musicology at the university of Amsterdam, where I am also a student in Russian. And every Friday, I go by train to Gouda, where I study art. During my summerholidays, I got minors in Czech (at the university of Prague) and Swedish (at the university of Stockholm).

Musicology

Musicology is the scholarly study of music. Therefore it's not at a conservatory, but at an university. As a discipline, musicology aims to develop an understanding and acknowledgment of music and its associated phenomena of expression. It is the study of the music of the past and present in our society and in other cultures. Musicologists may study quite an wide range of cases. A bit of, for example, can specialise inside English Tudor church music, others in the history of musical notation and others in the development of the flute. Some musicologists consult archives for the information they are looking for, others travel to Siberia or Indonesia to record and describe the local music.

I try to reach a new audience for classical music, by presenting serious musicological knowledge in a playful manner. My goal is to promote classical music in easy-to-grap forms, supported by modern technology. One of my projects is Encore!Magazine, a multimedial journal for youngsters, about (classical) music and art. I'm especially focussing on younger people (aged 12-20) and on Russian / Slavic music. And that's why I'm also studying Russian...

Russian

Besides musicology, I also study Russian at the University of Amsterdam. Why? Well, if you ask most Russianists (people who study the language and culture of Russia), they will tell you that they became fascinated with Russia, intrigued by the Russian language, and that they fell in love with Russia's great literature, and that these are good enough reasons on their own to study Russian. And they are! ;)

But there are lots of other reasons, too. Russian is the primary language of the 150 million citizens of the Russian Federation, as the Russian state calls itself, and is the native language of approximately 30 million people living in the other states which were formed after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In many if not all of those states (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kirgystan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia) Russian is widely spoken by people who are not themselves ethnic Russians, and it is also spoken by many people in the other countries of the former "Warsaw Pact".

As for me, I hope that I can do some projects to promote the beautiful Russian music in the Netherlands - and vice versa! By translating the vocal music, by travelling to Russia to bring home some new music, by organising concerts, writing books and articles, make presentations & cd's and more...

Ceramics

I had already worked a lot in the artsector, but it was not before I met Anita Rovers that I decited I want to become a professional artist. After two years of lessons with Anita, I went to look for a dual education in ceramics. And in Gouda, I have found exactly what I was looking for! Since september 2008, I study ceramics not only with Anita (who became one of my best friends), but also at the SBB with Mieke de Groot and Lucky Lambo.

As a ceramist, I want to learn to create things that last. Due to mass production, people get an overload on products that follow the newest hypes. Most consumer articles are cheap and easily replaceable - which leads to more consumption and a waste of materials. My personal goal for the future is to create products that are beautiful and can withstand time by giving them personal en exclusive qualities. Because I strongly believe that music and art can make a difference to this world.

What's next?

I think I'd like to be a student forever, so as long as I can afford it you'll see me at an uni somewhere. In April and May 2009, I'll be studying at the university of St. Petersburg. Hopefully I will manage to get my diplom in Slavonics, someday. And then... I have too many unmodest dreams. I would love to study Theology (Old Greek! Latin! Herbrew! Bible!) here in Utrecht - combined with composition at the conservatory. And one day, I want to do a Ph-D. But we'll see, first things first.