André Rieu and His Orchestra Will Be Giving Free Music Lessons

 André Rieu and His Orchestra Will Be Giving Free Music Lessons To Maastricht Children Who Grow Up In Poverty

André Rieu, Addie Redmeijer (left) in Rieu’s music studio.

February 1, 2022 De Limburger, by Merel Visscher. Photo credits: Harry Heuts: Using music to make social contradictions smaller. That is what violinist André Rieu has in mind with the free music lessons he wants to give to the underprivileged children of Maastricht.

“The goal is to introduce children, who are not familiar with music at home, to instruments and music”, Rieu explains. These lessons are paid for by Rieu himself, who is making four hundred thousand Euros available for this, together with a contribution from the Elisabeth Strouven Fund. The Maastricht violinist wants to start the lessons this year. Where the lessons will be given and which children are to be selected, will be worked out this year, together with Elisabeth Strouven and Addie Redmeijer of the welfare institution “Trajekt”.

Source

“The seeds for the idea were sown about four years ago”, say André and Marjorie Rieu. “We were visiting Annemarie Penn-te Strake and asked her how she felt about being the Mayor of Maastricht. She said she thought it was a great job, but she also found so much poverty in the city. We then started thinking about what we could do in that regard.” In the meantime, activities have been organized by the Rieu orchestra where children can get acquainted with music, but the plan is to tackle it structurally now.

Instrument

The orchestra members are also involved in the project. According to Rieu, many registered spontaneously. The music lessons are not one-on-one, but in groups. The children are immersed in the music and are allowed to choose an instrument themselves, under expert guidance, which they want to learn to play. “I get my inspiration from Venezuela, El Sistema. It is a huge success there.” "El Sistema" is free music education, set up in the slums in the 1970s by musician José Antonio Abreu.

Inventory

The problem, due to privacy legislation, was finding children who qualify for this, since the municipality is not allowed to just provide addresses. That is how Rieu came into contact with Addie Redmeijer, who assists Maastricht families in crisis situations through the “Trajekt” program.

Redmeijer: "I am active in every district of Maastricht, so I try to take inventory of which children would qualify for this. The music program is not intended to jump into the middle of Kumulus (music school)”, Rieu assures. “Many children who receive education at Kumulus come from an environment where music is already part of their life at home. This is about kids who don't. We think music can be of great help to these children in their lives.”

Thanks to Ineke for this article and her and John's combined translation