ISOLDE TROOST

I am Isolde Troost, and I am a pianist.

 

I started playing the piano when I was four (largely, at that point, because my big brother wás allowed to touch it and I wásn't), started taking lessons at six, and got into the Young Talent Programme of the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague by the time I was ten.

I left The Hague after finishing my Bachelor of Music, eleven years later, to go to Oslo, where I had been accepted to the Norges Musikkhøgskole to study with Einar Steen-Nøkleberg. I graduated as a Master of Music in June 2013.

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As a musician, I've worked in a lot of different settings - I've been playing in restaurants for background music, at weddings, as a soloist on stage, rehearsing opera repertoire as correpetitor, I've been the accompanist to several instrumentalists, I've been a teacher and I've managed my own events. What I like most, though, is working with a small group of performers. Together with Canadian violinist Elisabeth St-Cyr, I form the duo "4/243", and I've been working with British mezzosoprano/composer Emma Brown since my first year Bachelor. In my partnership with modern dancer Thami Joe Fisher we've made a dance performance out of Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit, and I provide the live piano music for Flow Performing Arts' performances whenever possible.

 

Small stages are my favourite. It's wonderful to play on a large stage, but I always get the feeling the audience is more a mass of people than a number of individuals. Though I detest the statement "music is a language" (because honestly, if one takes into consideration grammar and linguistics that just doesn't work), I very much believe that it's a means of communication, and communication between a number of individuals will flow far more smoothly than communication between a mass of people, I've found. 

 

Although I am at present based in Holland, I occasionally travel to Norway to teach (and be taught). I'm looking into moving on - to England, Dubai or even Hong Kong - after all, the more information you have, the more you can communicate, and the quickest way to different information is through different experiences!

 

If you want to know more about me - to hear my full Demo CD, find out what I could do for you, or my hourly rates - please send me a message through the "contact" page. My CV - both in English and Dutch - is also available for download there.