Dear People,

Entrepreneurship....

In my own development as an entrepreneur, I talk about artistic entrepreneurship.

For many years I have been unable to separate my artistry/classical singer from my entrepreneurship. Yes, at some point entrepreneurship has taken over in my career. Is it because of my youth where I was active in school administration, board of several student rowing clubs, I can't really put my finger on it. Artistic entrepreneurship has been my most faithful companion for creating my opportunities, guarding my boundaries and ultimately realizing my dreams.

Starting in 1993, I set up my own projects. That was two years after I graduated from the Utrecht Conservatory of Music, in 1991.

It started like this: I had become acquainted with the work of Catalan composer Federico Mompou, because of the commemoration of his 100th year of birth. I greatly admired him for his intimate and delicate miniatures and wanted more attention to his compositions.

Without writing a project plan beforehand (did they even exist back then?), I set to work and in October 1993 I was allowed to sing some of Mompou's songs on the TV program Traveler in Music. Then I got the chance to perform Mompou's complete vocal oeuvre on Radio 4 in four weeks with an hour of airtime each week. We were invited to a gala concert at the Spanish Embassy in The Hague, but the highlight was my trip to Barcelona, where Mompou's widow, the pianist Carmen Bravo, allowed me to work on Mompou's oeuvre in the composer's home for three days.

A great start for a singer who had graduated from the conservatory with one of the lowest grades (5.2) and was a problem throughout his studies!

In this way, over the past 24 years, several organizations in the field of (cultural) education and participation have been set up by me both artistically and in business terms: youth opera company Buffo Operamakers, Yo-Opera Festival, Operamakers and Vocal Statements. I also took the same approach with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Festival of Aix-en-Provence, The National Opera, Festival of Flanders, Opera of Basel and Luxembourg and the Regarding Arts Festival in Israel.

My entrepreneurship, when awarded the Prince Bernhard Culture Prize for cultural education in 2008, was described as: innovative. So where was the innovation, in my way of doing business? As I indicated, I had a number of basic conditions that had to be met, but what is the essence of these conditions, apart from my personal fascination and motivation?

I discovered more and more that for me the challenge was no longer only on the artistic side of a project, but that the real creative process for me had to do mostly with the production and business side.  I could really look forward to a production or business meeting! It was precisely in those consultations that my initiatives took wings, through the search for the common values of the project, the energy required for this and the pursuit of authentic quality.  In my own organizations and then also with the various clients, my first focus was not the artistic staff and artistic opportunities but the question of who will be my production and business partners, with whom will I do this job. The longer we worked together as a team, the more artistry and entrepreneurship became intertwined.

In a wondrous way, it also gave me more room to philosophize. In a way, my concentration on the production and financial side of a project created a certain distance that allowed me to ask questions through the eyes and ears of the audience, about the why?, the how, the with whom etc.  And ultimately these (audience) questions helped to get the artistic concept sharper and stronger.

It helped me tremendously to eventually communicate on all levels and in most diverse situations.

Although I already did that as a performing artist. If I sang somewhere, I also always sought contact other than with the artistic participants. In my experience, it is ultimately the production and technical people who guide you through the performance, much more than my fellow singers. Waiting in the wings and then receiving a thumbs up from a performance leader always did much more for me than dear and dear colleagues wishing you toi toi toi in the dressing room.

Like a true entrepreneur, I have always created my own work. Partly certainly out of necessity because I was not a singer who had success or won awards at the beginning of his career. At the same time, that combination of entrepreneurship, research and education may also have made me a singer who is finally being invited to perform on stage. The intensive creative collaboration based on commitment and the friendships with numerous business leaders and production directors that ensued contributed a great deal to the success of my work.

I learned the power of working with and in a team.
I learned that business/production and artistry go hand in hand.
I learned that a self-centered work attitude is counter-productive.