Joke Van Oirschot

Pianist, composer and arranger

Belgium

Author

About

Joke continued her musical education at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven, where she specialized in bachelor scripture and piano.

She took an specialization in Argentinian tango and World Music at the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music with Wim Warman, Jos Van Kleef en Gustavo Beytelmann. After that, she continued to take master classes home and abroad with, among others, Victor Villena, Coco Neligatti, A. Marcucci, Alejandro Schwartz and Ivo De Greef.

With tango orchestra “OTRA” from the tango department in codarts Rotterdam, she toured extensively abroad to Argentina, France, The Netherlands , Germany, and more, where she also performed as a soloist.

In 2014 Joke founded the tango quartet " Chicharra". In 2015 she founded the band 'les femmes de Nicolas' with own compositions and arrangements for dancing performances .

At the moment she teaches piano classes and piano practice (pianobegeleidingspraktijk) at the music school Mago in Antwerp. She was often invited to teach master classes, summer intensives and seminars. In 2016 she started writing the first piano solo works.

Sheets

Interview

What does music mean to you personally?

Music is my big love from the beginning of my human being. I growed up with music, my mother played every day the flute and cello. Music gives an extra dimentia to our excistence. It creates a certain feeling so that no more words are needed. You can completely express your own expression in music. You have the complete freedom to express something.

Do you agree that music is all about fantasy?

Music is a big part of imagination, but its more then fantasy, it can bring people closer together without words.

If you were not a professional musician, what would you have been?

I think i should be a natural doctor, i love the nature and the world, the thing i want to do is bring beauty and peace in it.

The classical music audience is getting old, are you worried about the future?

No i don t think so the established values of classical music will never be lost because it forms the basis of many kinds of music.

What do you envision the role of music to be in the 21st century? Do you see that there is a transformation of this role?

I think that in the 20 th century music will become more of a meltdown with other arts, like painting, dance, .. the role will expand more , will become multi dimensional in the society. For example when you go to a concert there is also a presence of movies, images… and of course the healing aspect of music will expand more and more when we start to create music on other frequencies.

Do you think that the musician today needs to be more creative? What is the role of creativity in the musical process for you?

Today it sometimes seems that the inspiration is disappearing because of because of all the stimuli that we get in our society. We are so overloaded that we forget to go back tot he essence of things. Creativity starts from the silence. The more weg o back to the essence, the more creativity is developed.

Do you think we as musicians can do something to attract the younger generation to music concerts? How would you do this?

We can stimulate music among young people by organizing concerts in primary schools from an early age. Organizing different kind of music concerts and instruments performances.

Tell us about your creative process. What is your favorite piece (written by you) and how did you start working on it?

One of my favorite compositions is L'espérance, it was my second piano solo work I wrote. When I wrote this pianowork I was very ill at that moment. I had many emotions of pain, sadness and the only thing that could help me to write down all this feelings was this composition. L’espérance, the hope to feel better and finally it helped me a lot.

Can you give some advice for young people who want to discover classical music for themselves?

I advise them to listen to different styles of music, not only classical music but all kind of beautiful music and to feel which kind of music appeals to them the most.

Do you think about the audience when composing?

Yes im thinking about that, thats why i try to make understandable music , not too complicated and acceptable to the general public

What projects are coming up? Do you experiment in your projects?

I m going to release a piano album and we will see further what can grow out of this.