dinsdag 14 februari 2006

Ties Mellema is profoessor of Saxophone at the Artez Conservatory. Open lessons on March 16th at 14:30 in Arnhem. Auditions are May 29th.

zondag 5 februari 2006

Monday, February 13, 2006 Blog: In the train to Arnhem, on my way to m...

Monday, February 13, 2006

Blog:

In the train to Arnhem, on my way to my new job. Sounds funny, that I've got a job. Until August I am hoofvakdocent (professor of saxophone) saxofoon at the Artez Conservatory in Arnhem. I am substituting for a sick teacher. I've always been dependent on free-lance income and starters subsidy for artists. This job is a lot of fun. There are not many students but they work hard in general. I have to get used to them and to the teaching in general. And of course they have to get used to me :-)

Today I read more about the cartoon thing. Ridiculous shit going on, excusez le mot! I almost can't believe it, it's to surreal. And it's actually happening. This morning someone said on TV that this wasn't about religion. I guess it would be about politics then?

If you have time: go check out Niels' concert in Hengelo in the Waterstaatskerk on February 17th. Niels is my good friend and colleague. A master saxophonist in every sense of the word. He will play a very interesting programme on the tenor saxophone, his favorite saxophone, and the most lyrical of all saxophones. I think he's right in that. The tenor is one of my favorites also. Maybe the most favorite. The tenor has something so typical and so seducing, almost erotic. Take the Bolero solo for example! The soprano exactly the same notes but they sound so much sexier on the tenor!

11 Feb. Saturday
We played at the Nederlandse Muziekdagen yesterday. We played well I think. There were some reviewers. Let's see what and of they'll write on Monday. The hall was sold out, that was great.
We played Andriessen's Facing Death for the first time and we did quite ok. We need to plat it more. But there's a problem. The piece is a rental, and the costs are too high for us to pay them ourselves. I am going to try to talk to the publisher to see if we can arrange something. Also, I think it is very bad system, the result is that we won't play pieces that are rentals. Contemporary music is hard enough to program already! I am also writing an open letter to Dutch organizations to tell them what us going on.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Almost Nederlandse muziekdagen in Vredenburg. Exciting stuff. A very hard programme with de Man, Keuris, Andriessen and Germanus. We had a rehearsal with Andriessen in which he said some remarkable thing: he wanted us to play less loud and slower!

Go check it out if there are still tickets