After 11 intense years of working for the ‘Zeeuwse Concertzaal’ begins a new period in my life .
Everything, everything, everything
In 2004 Jakko ven der Heijden (who recorded together with Walter Calbo pretty much all of my albums recorded) and I fantasized about our future. We agreed that having our own studio would be
awesome. No limits in time and budget when you’re working on an album, that would be great. That night we got the idea for the Concert Studio, a studio in the - at that time vacant – concertvenue
Zeeuwse Concertzaal. It was the start of a beautiful but also very intense adventure .
We not only realized the studio, we also got the job to run the concertvenue. That was really cool. The more than 100 year old hall was reconstructed and that meant we had to build everything pretty much literally from the ground. The furniture, the licenses, the key plan, the colors of the walls, the building of the catering section, the website, purchase of office supplies. Everything, everything, everything was new.
In November 2007 we opened and from then on we organized about 50 concerts a year with perhaps the highlight being the two weekends in 2009 and 2011 with Philip Glass. I also had a number of (sometimes hefty) composition commissions per year, released CD's and developed in recent years the concept of Give Music, Get Music.
Panic
I worked 16 hours a week for the concert hall. At least, officially. In real life a responsibility like this is much more consuming. About a year ago it was too much. Hyperventilation and panic.
Case of biting more off than I could chew. I got complaints that I thought that I would never get . I had to rest for six months rest to get body and mind back in order. Around the summer I was
again reasonably on track, but right after my stay in New York in August the panic was rising again. Many conversations followed, and it became clear to both the board of the hall as myself that
it would be better to say goodbye to each other. That the hall would benefit from a fresh start. So on January 1 for me a period of more than 11 years ended.
Follow my heart
"You’re your heart’ is very much in. In practice it is terribly scary and liberating at the same time. Sacry because you have no idea where these new steps are leading to. Liberating because I now finally have three days a week to focus on my music (the other two, I am looking for new challenges in the cultural world). After a year of reflection and doubt I start to get new plans again. Pretty megalomaniac plans actually . These are projects that will not easily be realized. But if they succeed, things will be awesome…!
with love,
Douwe
