13-05-2014
To be asked to speak as Scherpdenkers on stage at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Eindhoven Muziekgebouw is nothing short of a dream for me. A crazy dream, because I won’t be singing or dancing; I will be performing as a speaker. I almost feel ashamed. I won’t be taking to the stage to show off a beautiful singing voice or design talent, but because I’m so good at talking. “He tells great stories.” When I come up with something I tend to shout it from the rooftops; I can’t reign it in if I think it’s worth hearing about. I’m like the comedian who laughs the hardest at his own jokes. Something, I have to admit, I often do.
My dream of singing in the Concertgebouw is something I have inherited from my father. He adored music, singing in particular and it’s something I have carried into my own life. He was a teacher who loved to teach. He was a thinker, full of ideas and not afraid to let everyone know about it. But most of all, just like me, he would have loved to have been a good singer.
Design has become second nature to me and it gives me a storytelling platform through all of the media attention. I get to do what I love every single day and through that I get to say my piece. And ‘my piece’ in a nutshell is the conviction that all of us must set goals for ourselves and work towards them; we must make plans based on an expectation of the future that seldom seems to ring true. These days, when I hear lauded stories about goals being achieved after terrible hardships and against the odds, I find myself overwhelmed by a sense of despondency. What chances and opportunities were overlooked due to that blind purposefulness and how great were the hardships that had to be overcome on the way to achieving that single goal? Maybe I’ve just given away the ending of my speech, the ending I hope to come to when, before long, I start to tell my stories about more then twenty years of work and thought. My father won’t be there, but Henk Neeven will be; he’ll be singing my favourite cantata, ‘Ich habe genug’, along with many other songs. The evening can’t fail because, fortunately enough, there will be other people who also belong on this stage. And from 21st May I will be able to say that I have performed at both the Concertgebouw as well as at the Muziekgebouw!
Photography: Marco Borggreve
Concertgebouw Amsterdam
Tuesday the 20th of May
20:15 – 21:45h
From € 22.00 | Kleine Zaal |
Muziekgebouw Frits Philips Eindhoven
Kleine Zaal | Wednesday the 21st of May 2014 | 20.15h
Normal fee: € 17,50 | € 15,50 | € 13,00 | plus € 2,50 voor pauzedrankje
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