EUR students on tour with the Netherlands Student Orchestra: ‘We can just do it because we love it’

Three Erasmus students lived for a month as professional musicians and played in prestigious venues in the Netherlands, Belgium and France with the Netherlands Student Orchestra. EM attended one of the final performances at Amare in The Hague.

The backstage area of Amare, the prestigious venue located in The Hague, is filled with the sound of 84 student musicians from all over the Netherlands warming up with their instrument at once, resulting in a dissonant wall of sound that exudes anticipation yet familiarity with the procedure of performing in high-profile venues such as this one.

Individuals are seen entering the dressing rooms dressed as average university students in Nike sneakers and hoodies and exiting them dressed as elegant orchestra members in black blouses and suit jackets. Some students practice their parts, others already move towards the stage with a quiet sense of purpose. There, they are met with the contrastingly older concertgoers who have already claimed the first rows of seats in the venue.

Rehearsal from 10 till 9

Among the students preparing to perform are Frederique Hemler, Laura Havik, and Rosa Burger, three Erasmus University students who play violin, cello, and violin, respectively. While all three have toured with orchestras before, the current February/March run with the Netherlands Student Orchestra has also brought them new experiences. Rehearsals leading up to the tour were intense, as they included all 84 orchestra members rehearsing from 10am until 9pm for several days. The tour itself included twelve dates with few days off in between. “While being on this tour, you step out of your normal life for a month, so you really want to make the most out of every single day”, explains Rosa Burger, the 23-year-old violinist studying medicine at Erasmus MC.

The student orchestra’s tour also featured concerts in several world-class venues across the Netherlands such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Tivoli Vredenburg in Utrecht. “It makes me feel super spoiled to be playing in such prestigious venues as an amateur musician, I know that this is a very unique opportunity”, admits Laura Havik, the 24-year-old  cellist who also currently studies medicine at Erasmus MC.

Missing hours of sleep

The three student musicians also recognised how tiring touring can be. Laura: “The most challenging part of tour is distributing your energy properly. It is important to balance the post-concert partying with sleep and looking after yourself. For me personally, if I am too tired, I cannot enjoy the concerts anymore.”

Frederique, 24 years old and studying Econometrics at Erasmus, also revealed what one can miss while being a touring musician. “While on tour, I do sometimes miss having time alone. Our schedule is tight, and you are constantly interacting with other people.” All three musicians also mentioned how they do miss having more hours of sleep while on tour.

Concert for refugee children

However, for the three musicians, the rewarding experiences of touring outweigh the challenges. Two days before their concert in The Hague, the orchestra played a special concert for refugee children in Nijmegen. Frederique: “That was the most rewarding moment of the whole tour for me. Everyone always talks about how music connects people, but while performing for those children, that is when we really felt it. The children started dancing to the music almost as soon as we started playing, and we let them try out our instruments afterwards, which they really enjoyed. I hope some of the children became inspired after the concert to start playing an instrument themselves.”

Surprise act at the end

While the pieces the orchestra plays are very intricate and sophisticated, such as the famous Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz, there is also room for some fun at the end of the concerts. Rosa: “We always do a humorous surprise encore. There are costumes and other surprises involved, but you just have to see it for yourself.”.

This is in reference to the moment at the ‘end’ of the concert where all orchestra members briefly leave the stage and return in full costume, with handmade banners and props included. For each concert, each section of the orchestra adopts a specific costume theme. For the concert in The Hague, the surprise encore included the percussion section dressed as characters from the Wizard of Oz while the violin section took on the uniform of Olympic gymnasts.

The orchestra began their encore with a classical rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, somehow managing to perform the song while some celloists threw ping pong balls through the air and an orchestra member dressed as a green frog hopped between the rows of musicians. This encore was met with laughter and applause from the previously stern and quiet audience.

In regard to pursuing a future career in music, all three student musicians explained how despite the experiences they have had being touring musicians, they do not wish to become full-time professional musicians. Laura: “I considered pursuing a career in music for a long time, but I have already made the choice not to. I am doing my studies now and will pursue a career in that field. Sometimes I speak to my friends who have made a career in music, and they get a bit jealous of us who are not doing it professionally, because we can just do this for fun with not as much pressure as them. We don’t need to do this, we can just do it because we love it.”

Frederique: “With this tour, you get the chance to look into the life of a professional musician for a month, and it really is nice. But at the same time, it reminds me that I do not want to do this for my whole life.”

Rosa: “Being able to combine my studies or my future job with being a touring musician would be the ideal life for me. I am happy doing music only part time, because then I get the best of both worlds.”