"Always TOGETHER, With or without ANDRÉ RIEU’

 "Always TOGETHER, 

With or without ANDRÉ RIEU’

Chapeau, July 2022.

Text by Richard Stark. Kris Nemeth photography.

Not only musically but also socially, the Johann Strauss Orchestra is known as a close-knit company. In some cases, LOVE even plays a game. First violinist Frank Steijns (51) and mezzo-soprano Madieke Schoots (40) have been in the "couples of the orchestra" category for two years now.

 

Madieke Schoots arrives a little later in the town hall because she still had to pick up the wedding album at home. Because of that I meet  the multi-instrumentalist and city carillonneur of Maastricht first in the seventeenth-century town hall, his part-time workplace and their prior wedding location. "We are one of the many couples in the orchestra, but we are the couple that was married last," says Frank Steijns. When the two sit next to each other, just then you notice how their eyes shine and how they complement each other seamlessly. It wasn't immediately love at first sight when they met at a rehearsal of the Johann Strauss Orchestra in Maastricht.

“I hail from Tiel, studied in Utrecht, but was working in Amsterdam at the time,” says Madieke. "With André Rieu I could sing along as a substitute for a singer on maternity leave." Frank adds: “I was not really open for love because my work with André means that I am on concert tour all over the world 150 days a year, and then it often turned out to be difficult to enter into a relationship.” Although the two did not immediately fly around each other's neck, a time did come for them in which they always had nice conversations with each other about everything ans anything. “We also visited each other's concerts and –  coincidentely or not – when we made a date, there was always one table free and always exactley the same”, Madieke remembers in the very beginning.

In the fall of 2015, the musicians went on tour with André Rieu to Chile. “We were somewhat awkwardly around each while other orchestra members probably saw our infatuation a kilometer away,” says Frank. After the tour, Schoots resumed her work as a singer in the Randstad. Steijns went on tour with the orchestra. At the baggage claim at the Dublin airport It happened, he reconstructs. "André tapped me on the shoulder and said: "You don't look very happy Frank, is it because of me?" I replied: "Somewhat because it is getting serious with Madieke and I am dreading the fact being on tour so frequentl.y " That is not going to be the case."  Then André said: “Madieke, I know her from my concerts… Call her right away and tell her I'm offering her a one-year contract!” Well, since then we've been happily together for six years now,” which he briefly summarizes the couple's love story. "We are together on tour from morning till night and that is going well, perhaps also because we are both Capricorns, just like , by the way, thirteen other musicians in the orchestra." while Madieke is looking for an explanation. “The other orchestra members have also embraced us as a couple and we ourselves too like the fact that you share the same experiences as partners. You experience the same concert from a different perspective as a singer or violinist. You sometimes talk about that before going to sleep, but that's only fun.” Frank, laughing: “For observant visitors to the Vrijthof concert in Maastricht: when the orchestra starts “Falling in love” by Elvis Presley, we always look at each other in love.”

 

Violinist FRANK STEIJNS and singer MADIEKE SCHOOTS have been a couple for six years already.

 Prior to André Rieu's concerts on the Vrijthof, the Maastricht Salon Orchestra will play a private concert for VIP guests of André Rieu Travel, with Frank Steijns on the piano.

“VerrasSing” (Surprise) performs in the Cellebroederskapel in Maastricht on 10, 14 and 24 July.

During the past corona period, an ensemble arose in which the two participate: “VerrasSing”, a company consisting of Madieke Schoots and two other vocalists from Rieu's orchestra, with Frank Steijns behind the piano. “During that period, we also gave a concert together in Washington on the carillon that the Netherlands donated as a gift to America  after the war,” says Frank. Something similar also happened in the Maastricht city hall when we got married. “Our wedding took place in the middle of corona period and for that reason only five people were allowed into the tower. I alone was allowed to play the Wedding Bells of the carillon and Madieke sang along.” “We also gave each other our rings there,” says Madieke as she along with her husband  browse through the wedding album. “Our family received the ceremony via a video link. When we looked at the Markt through the reverberation holes, a big surprise came to us," says Frank. “Due to corona, the entire André Rieu orchestra  was spread all across the square, but as one big family, was with champagne at their fingertips applauding and enjoying the event.

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