By means of: Joep Bbrakers
Tue Apr 30, 09:31
General
VLISSINGEN – Recorder player Esra Jonckman (15) from Vlissingen will go to the final of the Princess Christina Competition, which will be held on Sunday, May 12 in the Amare concert hall in The Hague. The annual competition is especially for young musicians between the ages of 12 and 19. Esra participates in the category 12 to 14 years.
Esra Jonckman started playing the recorder eight years ago. “My mother wanted me to get acquainted with music,” says Esra. “We then went to the store and bought a recorder because a lot of people start with that.” But for Esra the recorder is much more than a ‘beginner’s instrument’. “I just think it’s a really nice instrument, the recorder is really my passion.” Esra does not have a stranger’s love for music, mother Michelle plays the flute herself. “I taught her the first notes,” says Michelle Jonckman. “And in the beginning we also played together. But I never became as good as Esra.”
Sweelinck Academy
After taking lessons from her mother, Esra first had lessons for a year at Vlijt en Volharding in Oost-Souburg; “After that I went to the Music School in Middelburg.” Esra has been taking lessons at the conservatory in Amsterdam since September. “I go to the Sweelinck Academy every Saturday. This is a training course for young talent up to the age of eighteen. I had to audition for that first.” Esra is the only musical talent from Zeeland who is currently training at the Sweelinck Academy. In addition to the recorder, Esra also plays the piano. “I used to play the saxophone, but I don’t do that anymore. They became a bit too many instruments.”
Conservatory
Esra is in her fourth year of pre-university education at the CSW Van der Perre in Middelburg and then definitely wants to continue in music. “I first want to do a bachelor’s degree at the conservatory and then maybe study law.” On average, Esra spends about two hours a day rehearsing the recorder. To qualify for a place in the finals of the Princess Christina Competition, Esra had to go through several preliminary rounds. Of the three hundred initial participants, she is now among the final six. “There was first a preliminary round and then to the regional final in Rotterdam. If you come first you can go through to the semi-finals. That was two weeks ago in the Stadsgehoorzaal in Leiden. I got through that and now I can go to the final.”
Viotta price
When Esra won the regional final she also received the Viotta prize. “Because I won it, I can give a solo performance next year with the Viotta youth orchestra in The Hague. I already know what I want to play, a Vivaldi concerto.” Esra has also already won the JongLeer Prize Foundation. “That is an amount of money that is intended to help me develop further.” During the final of the Princess Christina Competition on May 12, Esra will also perform work by Antonio Vivaldi. “There I play La Notte by Vivaldi and the third piece of Three pieces for clarinet by Stravinsky.”
Lucy Hors
Esra mainly listens to classical music. As far as the recorder is concerned, Lucy Hors is her role model. “I think she interprets the music very funny and beautifully. It really is a passion of hers. She has good techniques and you can learn something from that.” In the final of the Princess Christina Competition, Esra is the only one playing the recorder. The competition is fierce. “There are five others in my category, but I will do my best,” concludes Esra Jonckman.
