Dutch American Heritage Foundation

The 2006 DAHEF Concerts

One of the missions of the Dutch American Heritage Foundation is to discover, promote, create and celebrate Dutch culture and share this with Americans of Dutch descent and other Americans.

One of our activities is an annual concert by gifted young Dutch musicians. The ‘Prinses Christina Concours’ in the Netherlands once again carefully selected this year’s laureates. Vera Kerstens, piano, Felicia van den End, flute, Svjatoslav Presnyakov, piano, and Tosca Opdam, violin, proved to be excellent young musicians with a great career ahead of them. The musical program was very well chosen with Vera starting off with music by Bartok and Chopin, followed by Tosca, accompanied by Svjatoslav, playing Debussy and de Sarasate. After a short intermission it was Svjatoslav’s turn as a soloist, performing Beethoven, Schuman and Prokofiev. Felicia with her magic flute and Vera, piano finished the program by combining beautifully with music by Poulenc, Debussy and Godard.

      

                   From left to right: Tosca, Felicia, Vera and Svjatoslav

The first concert, followed by a reception, was held on April 28 in the beautiful auditorium of the Italian Institute of Culture in Los Angeles. Over 100 people, including The Honorable Madelien de Planque, Consul General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and her guests, as well as members of the American/Dutch community, attended this function. At the end of the concert the youngsters received a standing ovation in appreciation of their outstanding performance.

After a day of well-deserved relaxation it was off to San Francisco where they performed on May 1 in the splendid Grace Cathedral. The Honorary Consul Doug Engmann and his wife Barbara hosted this concert and reception. It was again a concert of very high quality and the appreciative audience of over 150 people applauded until Felicia came back for an encore.

Vancouver was added to our tour this year and the concert there on May 3, hosted by the Consul General Joop Corijn and his wife Agnes, in the music hall of the University of British Columbia was a great success. Close to 200 people attended, mainly members of the diplomatic corps and Canadians of Dutch descent, who asked for an encore and gave the musicians a standing ovation. Afterwards we heard nothing but praise and requests to come again next year.

In the afternoon of May 4 my wife Yvonne and I said reluctantly ‘Au Revoir’ to four wonderful youngsters, who are not only very talented and dedicated to their chosen career, but also well behaved and just plain nice kids enjoying life to the fullest.

The youngsters not only played music and spent time rehearsing, but also had a busy but short social and sightseeing program in the three cities. In Los Angeles they were guests of the Dutch American Heritage Foundation and they visited Hollywood, Malibu and Venice Beach. In San Francisco Doug and Barbara Engmann took care of them and they were very fortunate, like the three students last year, to stay in their beautiful Victorian home, dating from 1894. The ride to the airport in a very luxurious limousine, organized by Doug, will not easily be forgotten. In Vancouver two of them stayed with Joop and Agnes Corijn and two with friends of theirs. Their hospitality was outstanding, and in the short period of time they still saw a lot of this beautiful city.

All in all it was a very successful tour and the Dutch American Heritage Foundation wishes to thank the Consulates General in Los Angeles and Vancouver and the Honorary Consul in San Francisco for their financial and other support of this tour. Our thanks also go to Northwest/KLM Airlines and the Netherland-America Foundation in New York for their generous support and to all of you who supported the events by attending and/or making a donation.

Yvonne and I enjoyed organizing this tour and accompanying the students. We hope to be in a position to do it again next year.

Dick van Hoepen