ISOLDE TROOST

I think I was seven when I got my first library card - old enough (at least in my opinion) to start reading "real books" (those being the ones that don't consist mainly of pictures). The first aforementioned real book I read was C.S. Lewis' "The Silver Chair" - in Dutch, obviously, and retrospectively with rather big letters, but I still remember getting it (and promptly going out to loan four more books, getting quite upset when I found out that was the limit, never mind I c

So, Philip Glass. Not exactly a challenge for any pianist, but made very interesting indeed by the choreography made to it - it's always wonderful to work with dancers. "Solo Piano" (1989) is an album of piano music composed by Philip Glass. It was produced by Kurt Munkacsi. The title of five of the seven tracks, "Metamorphosis", refers to and was inspired by the 1915 short story "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka. The silence duet is, at least for the pianist, to be compared

A couple of years ago, I heard this piece performed, and then didn't rest until I'd hunted down a copy of it. The only one I could find was the rather fancy "Limited Edition" printed by Breitkopf & Härtel in 2002 - pretty green hardcover, gold lettering, the works - which came with an introduction. Part of that is the following: "Even if "Wie die Zeit läuft!" (How time flies!) is not officially designated as a "song without words", this appellation, created by Mendelssohn him

I’m sure some of you’ll have seen the Facebook update regarding one of the pieces I played last Sunday. For those who didn’t – it very subtly encouraged me to premiere a week-old piece by announcing to the world that it was finished and pondering whether or not I’d be able to play it within the week. Challenge, of course, accepted – and therefore last Sunday, I officially premiered a piece that didn’t exist yet the Sunday before. Sleep is for the weak, I guess..! Anyway – per

And so, after two(ish) weeks of rehearsal, we came to performance day, and it was awesome. Our final “normal” rehearsal had been Wednesday night, in which the Grand Finale was choreographed – to my singing the piece, because the dancers needed a mirror to do the actual choreographing, which was only available in the dance studio, which didn’t have a piano in it. Thus I spent this rehearsal trying to sing a three-part harmony with myself, which probably would’ve gone a lot be

It has been hinted at already, in the cheerful little “next performance” box on the right-hand side of my home page – a concert will be given in De Regentenkamer, The Hague, on Sunday the 12th of October 2014. And not just any concert. A concert featuring the works of composer Jannum Kruidhof and his “Artist Collective” – the bunch of brilliant people he’s convinced to play his music – plus Yours Truly. I myself will be featuring in a rendition of “Points of View”, a funky, j

It is now both officially and meteorologically autumn, and so I can say with one hundred percent accuracy that the new rehearsal season has started. Cue the head cold. But of course. Anyway. New rehearsal season! Most prominently, rehearsals with no less than three fabulous dancers: Florence Rapati, Thami Fisher and Pallas Sridevi, who we have cunningly lured out of retirement yet again... Pallas was actually the one that came up with it – she teaches ballet classes at The Hu