My goal as an artist is really simple: I play music and create musictheatre so I can connect people.
Having my dad, my mother and my brother playing the violin, I grew up with the idea that studying classical music was the most normal thing to do. Already from a really young age, I went to several concerts of my dad’s orchestra, het Brabants orkest, now Philharmonie Zuidnederland, I watched my brother playing solo concerts in the biggest hall of Belgium or Vienna and when I finally had the right age, I also competed to all international competitions I could. Since I can remember, I have not only seen but also participated at all kind of traditional ways of performing classical music.
Being in this environment since a very young age, I was also able to notice really soon that I experienced classical music in a different way than most of my friends or family.
When I listened to an orchestra playing, I didn’t pay any attention to the different instruments or the conductor. There was something stronger that kept asking my attention. From the very first note the orchestra would play, I could see a whole, self-imagined story, like if I as watching a movie. I didn’t know where all this imagination came from , but it felt normal and I enjoyed it. At the age of 8, it started also to give me inspiration to write stories and poems.
I didn’t write these stories and poems down in a classic novel way. I wanted them to be performed, with music, with acting, with dance… So most part of my writing consisted of drawings and titles of music pieces I wanted to use. At the age of 14, I decided that this was just one big childhood dream that would never come true. I gave up these amazing ideas I once had enjoyed so much.
But in 2016, I couldn’t ignore the fact that something essential was missing in my way of performing. Music had always seemed to be my best way of communication, but I couldn’t help than asking myself almost day and night: what if I, just for once, could give a performance in such a way, that people would see and feel what I feel during a concert?
This question and several other feelings, made me creating my very first musictheatre performance for the Kunstenfestival Musica Sacra. During this performance, and especially after having talked with the audience, I realized that, yes, this is the way how I want to communicate with people. I can see that people are more connected to themselves after such a performance. Isn’t that just the purpose of an artist?
AW 