Workshop, podcast,

concerts: this is the

Coosje Wijzenbeek Prize

A collective award

To keep alive the memory of Coosje Wijzenbeek, the internationally renowned violin teacher who passed away in 2021, the Dutch Violin Competition (NVC), the Musical Instrument Fund, and the organization dedicated to Coosje Wijzenbeek—recently renamed the Coosje Wijzenbeek Foundation—decided to establish a prize named in her honor, intended to pass on certain aspects of her unique teaching approach to young violin talents. This initiative also builds on Coosje’s conviction that competitions for up-and-coming musicians should focus much more on the added value they provide to participants’ personal development during their formative years, rather than placing too much emphasis on winning first prize.

She has always kept this clearly in mind in her role as a jury member at numerous competitions both at home and abroad. That is why the Coosje Wijzenbeek Prize was established as a collective award for young violin talent, with the aim of providing the elements essential to the development of professional performing artists. The prize is therefore awarded to all semifinalists of the biennial competition for the Davina van Wely Prize for 14- to 17-year-olds. The participants in this competition are still in their teens, but have already demonstrated their ability to perform the classical violin repertoire at a high musical level.

Violin Competition

On January 15, 2022, the Coosje Wijzenbeek Prize was awarded for the first time at Tivoli Vredenburg to the eight semifinalists of the competition for the Davina van Wely Prize by Francien Schatborn, a former student of Coosje, former Fancy Fiddler, and board member of the Coosje Wijzenbeek Foundation.

This opportunity was a significant contribution by the Dutch Violin Competition (NVC) to the establishment of the Coosje Wijzenbeek Prize. As a result, the winners were invited to participate in the Coosje Wijzenbeek Workshop Day on April 18, 2022—Coosje’s birthday. In addition, the Musical Instrument Fund is in close contact with the winners to coordinate their participation in a podcast production and to determine at which concert they will perform this year.

Workshop Day

On April 18, 2022, seven winners (the eighth winner had to go on a trip to Greece with her school) of the 2022 Coosje Wijzenbeek Prize gathered at Splendor in Amsterdam for a day full of workshops. This marked an important part of what this special and collective award entails.

The participants: Joshua Tavenier, Else Baas, Luca van der Waals, Olga Göschel, Zohra Jongerius, Marcel Sutedja, and Evy Hamers. (Diana Fakour was unable to attend.)

It began with a “personal leadership” workshop led by conductor and organizational coach Ronald Becker. With their own goals in mind, the participants were able to experience, through an introductory lesson in conducting, just how much your personal aptitudes and character reveal about the resources available to you for setting—and achieving—your goals.

After a delicious lunch, photographer Foppe Schut went over the key elements with the winners that are important for creating a photo shoot to support publicity efforts, such as for the website, social media, program booklets, contests, etc.

Afterward, actor Alwin Pulinckx led a workshop on stage performance. He focused in particular on how to handle all those eyes fixed on you—from the moment you step onto the stage right up to your first movements. Of course, being aware of your breathing is already very important for finding inner calm, but it’s also—and above all—about connecting with the audience by connecting with yourself. Through a few more or less challenging exercises, this quickly became very clear and instructive.

To wrap up the series of workshops, Emma Rekers, singer and coach, guided the participants through the process of collaboratively preparing their own musical presentation. It was an exciting process that resulted in a beautiful and interesting piece of music in a short amount of time, which the participants’ “guests” were ultimately able to enjoy with their eyes closed.

It became clear that this day was a huge success—especially for the participants—when, during a very lively after-party, they enthusiastically shared their experiences with their “guests” and the organization’s representatives. The feedback we received afterward described the day as fun, enjoyable, inspiring, intense, and educational!

What's to Come

The Musical Instrument Fund is still in close contact with the winners regarding performances in our concert series and the production of a podcast in the coming months.

Frits Schutte, head of collections and personal coach for “musical development,” held extensive discussions via Zoom with the Coosje Wijzenbeek Prize winners. Together, they explored how these young talents could develop even further and how the Musical Instrument Fund could best assist them in planning their stage performance as part of the Coosje Wijzenbeek Prize.

Broadly speaking, it was determined at the time that the prize winners would benefit greatly from performing in a large venue, preferably in front of a large audience. As up-and-coming violin talents, they already have quite a bit of experience performing on smaller stages, so that’s no longer a major challenge for them. Performing in a large concert hall, on the other hand, will provide them with a truly significant, additional experience, because:

• Stepping onto the stage of a large concert hall brings a different kind of pressure, so it’s an exercise in learning to cope with it;

• As a musician, you have to be able to deal with the specific acoustic characteristics of a large concert hall. This is something virtually all young talents can learn from;

• Several winners mention that they could still learn how to connect with the audience in a large concert hall and how to truly convey the music all the way to the back of the hall. One winner mentions wanting to explore and work on finding a good balance between what can be conveyed purely through playing and how to express that through physical presence.

That is why the Musical Instrument Fund will be offering all of them the opportunity to perform in a large concert hall in the coming months. This involves filling the program for two lunchtime concerts at the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ and, possibly, a major event organized by the Music Instrument Fund in September.

In addition, an expert (a renowned “stage veteran”) will be invited to provide feedback after the concert on how the artists come across to the audience; this feedback will be something they can actually put to use. Of course, the learning objectives will be agreed upon in advance, and valuable tips will be shared beforehand.

In addition, the winners will participate in a podcast, which is expected to be recorded in late August at Het Muziekinstrumentenfonds from the Instrumentenkamer. We deliberately chose August because the musicians are currently very busy wrapping up the year.