Biography
Geerte is a Dutch violinist and workshop leader with a special interest in cross-arts and improvisation. She collaborates and creates new work with dancers, electronic musicians, visual artists, actors, and a variety of musicians with different musical backgrounds from all over the world. To share her passion for music and composition with others, Geerte works as a workshop leader with a wide range of communities.
Geerte started playing the violin when she was 4 years old. In 2002 she was admitted to the Young Talent Class at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, The Netherlands, where she studied with Hans Scheepers. She continued her violin studies in The Hague with Ilona Sie Dhian Ho and graduated with her Bachelor of Music in June 2013. Inspired by its rich and experimental music seen she moved to London where she specialised in improvisation, cross-arts and community art at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as part of the Artist Masters Programme. She graduated in 2015 with her final research performance ‘Interbeing'. Interbeing is a piece for 8 moving string players exploring the space between sound and movement. In her research Geerte has focused on the phenomenological experience of collaboration and the visual and physical aspects of her own practice as a violinist. |
Geerte is active in many different ensembles, bands and cross-arts collaborations and has played in concert halls and side-specific locations all over the world. She is co-founder of the DaMu collective of instant composition and moving string ensemble TrioDuo. Geerte is currently co-developing a new and innovative piece for Oranjewoudfestival, Oerol and Grachtenfestival 2018 and will go on tour with children theatre Oorkaan in 2019.
As workshop leader Geerte creates new original work with a wide range of communities. She has worked for The Barbican, BBC Symphony Orchestra, The Guilhall School of Music and Drama and Royal Conservatory The Hague. She co-leads 3 day workshops for TivoliVredenburg and is currently developing the music and dementie program for Ludwig. At the HKU Utrechts conservatorium Geerte works as a methodology and minor violin teacher. As a violin teacher she is also active for the Muziek Route (an ongoing creative music program in primary schools, Overvecht) and Pi Music (music for young talented children in Utrecht). Besides the classical music education Geerte is always searching for new ways of incorporating improvisation, composition, cross-arts and other creative music making activities into her work as workshop leader and violin teacher. From September 2015 till April 2016 Geerte lived and worked in Tanzania. It was an adventure in which she got the chance to work, play, sing, dance, create, explore and exchange with international and local communities in Tanzania and surrounding countries. |
Geerte is very thankful for the scholarships she received from the Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds, VSB Fonds, Stichting de Fundatie van de Vrijvrouwe van Renswoude and Guildhall Scholarship towards her studies in London.