Monique ~ Janny ~ TheaI am working on the report, but please try to be patient ...
love from rainy Holland, Monique
Monique ~ Janny ~ Thea
Who could this be??? It is a picture of the second grade of a much beloved JSO member. The picture was taken in the second grade during the 1968-69 school year at the Ambrosius school in Maastricht, Limburg.
Photo by Heather



SANTA MONICA, CA--(Marketwire - September 7, 2007) - Andre Rieu, already one of the top performing and selling classical artists worldwide and a platinum-selling artist in the US, is on course to break all of his previous sales benchmarks with the release of his new PBS special "RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL LIVE IN NEW YORK." Currently airing on PBS stations nationwide, "RADIO CITY" is by far the most successful program for the network so far with over 1000 prime time airings in markets across the country including powerhouse stations in New York City (WNET) and Los Angeles (KCET). Denon Classics will release "RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL LIVE I" on September 11 on CD and DVD. Rieu will embark on another arena tour of the western US in October, which will be followed by his eastern dates in the spring which have consistently sold out for years.
Says Steve Vining, President of the Savoy Label Group: "The unprecedented response to Andre's first US produced special at PBS and his ever growing retail presence will make the commercial release of this extraordinary concert event his most successful to date. His unique gift of delighting audiences is nowhere more evident than the phenomenal live 'RADIO CITY' spectacular."
Andre Rieu has always been an artist who has generated unparalleled excitement within (and beyond) the realm of classical music. His spectacular specials produced around the world have consistently been the #1 performing pledge drive programs for PBS, his last twelve CDs have landed within the top of Billboard's Classical chart with several debuting in the #1 spot, he's won multi-platinum video sales awards for his DVD sets, "The Ultimate Andre Rieu Collection" and "The Ultimate Andre Rieu Christmas Collection," and his tours have grown bigger each year, regularly selling out arenas in the US and landing him in the Top 5 of Pollstar Magazine's top touring acts year after year.

We wish you a very Happy Birthday.
Liefetjes, Sonja Y

Hi Americans, have you ever heard of the painter André Balyon, who lives in Monterey, California? He is the oldest son from a Dutch family with seven kids. He was raised in The Hague, the city where I live! All by himself he emigrated in 1970 (19 years old) to the United States of America. His family members still live in the Netherlands. The family is very talented. Four of his brothers are painters or graphic designers. André Balyon already had build up some fame in the States, when in 1994 the Walt Disney Studios asked him to sketch the skies and the clouds for the Lion King cartoonfilm. You know, most of the Dutch painters are famous for their skills of painting seas, skies and clouds.
André said he had been fascinated as a young boy, by the "Panorama Mesdag", which is in a museum in The Hague. That panorama is a big cylindrical painting, made by the painter H.W. Mesdag. It is an impression of the historic fisherman’s village of Scheveningen around the year 1881. (Scheveningen is now a well known beach resort and part of The Hague). Want to have a closer look?? http://www.panorama-mesdag.nl/ , click for the English language.
Next to the Big Sur Panorama is the Panorama Tulipland. I think I told about that before. It is been painted by one painter: Leo van den Ende. He expects he can finish it in 2009. The visitors can see him paint and can talk to him. The painting is about the bulb area in the Netherlands, around the fifties. To complete this story about the cylindrical paintings: have a look at http://www.tulipland.nl/
Maastricht Flashbacks
On Thursday our first day there, some of us walked up a little cobble stone street and around the church where Frank Steijns was giving a concert on the carrilon of the St Servaas at The Vrijthof.
As a few of us were heading back into the Vrijthof area by way of a small deserted back street, we came around a corner and who did we bump into but ~ Andre himself!!! Ruth (Morgan) said "Hi Andre!!"~ He looked at her and with a Big Smile AND Wink, waved and said "Hi" back to her. I don't think I need to tell you how happy Ruth was that evening!! He smiled at us all as he walked past, then got into his Mercedes and drove away.
It happend so fast and although we all had our camera's, the only one that was quick enough to react and take a picture was Jeanne Marie ~ "Merci" Jeanne Marie!!! ~ And Thank You Chris and Siggy for sending the picture:)




