Music

Draagvader – 2009-2011

I really love to play and experiment music. Now I play in a Fusion HipHop band, playing the trompet again after years of neglect. I love it! Great instrument! Great people to work with! With the band I started in 2009, when I was thinking about finishing the USKO choir. It started when I visited a good old bar Kafé België in Utrecht. I don’t remember how, but I was chatting to a chap who called himself Tomas Schroën. In the conversation it became clear that we originated from the same region in the Netherlands called Limburg, and surprisingly went to the same high school, st. Ursula. He asked me if I played an instrument of some sort, and I replied I have a trumpet, but would love to play again. So he offered me to play in his newly-to-create band.
Well here we are now. The band is called Draagvader, and we play different tunes. We all have different musical backgrounds, Classical music, Jazz, Punk, Metal, Grunge, and Hiphop. So it became an adventure, creating music from all these different mixtures. First we did some covers to get know each other a bit better, how we sound, etc. The covers ranging from, Buck65, Snoop Dogg, Cypress Hill, Def P and Meatloaf. Now we have a stack of five of our own songs. (Je moet gaan, Utopia, Roes, Fuck m’n intellect, Egypte.) They are in Dutch, because the hiphip poetry involved is in Dutch as well.

USKO – 2002-2009

Before I played in a band, I sang in a classical choir. The Utrecht University Choir and Orchestra. It is the biggest student choir in the Netherlands, and the quality was well respected. We often performed in the Vredenburg and in the Amsterdam Concert hall.

The picture is dated May 2009, a rehearsal on the tour we did in France. You can find me in the upper left corner. I am looking if something does not sound correct, the tune maybe, the balance of sounds, or the echo of the building. I don’t remember. For references see http://usko.nl/concert/history/

The video’s above just give you an impression about the magnitude and brilliance.

Dekoor – 2005

An in-between period, when I sang at the USKO I was asked to do audition for the Dekoor choir. Dekoor is a Pop and Jazz choir. When I got through audition I was obliged to come on a tour to South Korea and Taiwan. Although I was in the middle of writing my Master thesis, I could hardly refuse this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I accepted.
For references see www.dekoor.nl
I had a great time with these people and learned so much musically from the director Johan Rooze

The picture was taken in Taiwan, when we were on a tour back in 2005. You can find me in the bottom right corner. I did love the attention. : )

This video demonstrates the high quality of this choir. They, of course, won the national competition, as they did with many international competitions. I left the choir one year before the recordings above, pitty, but I had to finish my Master thesis.