Education

“To be a teacher is my greatest work of art” – Joseph Beuys

This statement that Joseph Beuys made in 1969 inspires me. Teaching as an equal part of my creative life. More than ever, it is necessary to pass on the baton, share experience and help young people shape their creatorship. I consider it very important to create a safe and challenging learning environment in which experimentation can take place, in which students can make mistakes and learn from them.

Artistic coaching and deepening of the creative process

I am currently also putting my decades of experience as a teacher, artistic coach and maker into practice in my private practice. Based on a working method that I describe as (re)discovering deep listening, the student or (semi) professional develops new creative fields and possibilities. In individual conversations or group meetings, boundaries are pushed, bottlenecks are exposed and learning with a fresh perspective is facilitated . All this takes place in a safe environment, where the specific individual learning questions are taken into account. Feedback is given using the Dasarts Feedback method, a constructive approach in which new work and discoveries in the artistic field are examined without judgment and in this manner taken to the next level. The sessions always focus on the work and the creative process. For further information please contact me by mail. More information, conditions and rates can be found on the Deepening the making process page.

Musician 3.0 as inspiration

In a changing world with a vulnerable cultural climate, there is a need for broadly employable professional musicians/makers who are able to work inter-disciplinary. Based on this vision, a study program was founded within the Utrecht Conservatory with the stimulating name Musician 3.0. From 2012 to date, I have been involved in this course, which continuously challenges me, keeps me sharp and has helped develop my vision on education, coaching and artistic guidance. Within the course I have developed a subject on artistic making processes that has grown into a core subject in the third year of the Bachelor’s course and which is also followed by the Master students: MMP: making processes for music performance. The bachelor teaches flexible makers, broadly educated, with both feet in society and with a recognizable artistic profile.

These students do not fit into the ‘moulds’ as they were and are. They have a different DNA: no choice for one musical style, nor for one instrument, nor for one role within professional practice. However, the conviction to enter the music profession from a hybrid profile. T-shaped professionals, communicative makers with an improvising brain, ready to collaborate with ‘whoever is in the room’, willing to look at themselves and their functioning, to examine their assumptions and to learn from curiosity and fascination. Authentic and skilled makers who know their way in the world with self-confidence.