The Toronto Symphony Called !

Today.. is a great day.... by the way...

why you ask?

well at 9:45 this morning I was called by David Kent the General personal manager of the Toronto Symphony if I could come and play this morning.. rehearsal starting at 10:00am... and would you please play Mahler 1st symphony with us...

AAAHHH... YAAAA........ DUH !!!!

of course... I'll be there as fast as I can...

so any way to make a long story short... for those of you interested.. come out and hear the Toronto Symphony perform Mahler 1st symphony this Wednesday and Thursday night, ( sept . 29, 30th )

You can't miss me on stage.. I'm the one with the big giant smile on her face !

I just love this town !

ps.. if you can't come.. it will be broadcasted LIVE on CBC radio 2 thursday night as well...

Happy Birthday Nicholas !

BUSY , BUSY BUSY ! It started with this morning when I went to pick up Lies from mom's place, and then we went the local park; actually it’s a botanical garden. The weather was perfect once again… its amazing that indeed Lies will not experience one single rainy, cloudy day as she is here. Every day sunny and between 20 and 25 degrees, perfect ! any way we went to the gardens. After that I took her down to the St. Lawrence Market. This is a big indoor market that is very busy on Saturday s and lots of fun. We needed to buy the ingredients for that evening dinner at Ineke. So I dropped of Milo at Ineke’s and picked up Nicholas, and off to shopping we went. We bought fresh Corn, 40 dollars worth of Spare Ribs, some new potatoes and then we were set. After dropping the groceries at Ineke, off in the car we went again, this time with Caroline, to the Beaches. I drove to the Queen street East area, parked the car, and went for a nice walk along the board walk. We had something to drink, played with Milo in the water, and then back to Ineke’s… pheew… ya .. lots on our plate… and its not over yet. So rushing back to Ineke’s because Lies and I have to start the Ribs. We needed to make a marinade for the Ribs, a special reciepe from Melinda.. and that took a while, then we had to boil and then back in the over for an hour and half. I in the mean time also had to prepare the potatoes, that were also in aluminium foil and layed with onion and fresh farm bacon. Then the other guest arrived, Dutch artist Eliane Duvkot and her husband and 2 kids , as the reason we were having this party , was for Nicholas, as it was his 15 birthday !

Boy a house full ! but we all fit, we sat outside, had a wonderful time, plenty of food, thank god, I was afraid, having to feed 13 people. For dessert we had Daniel et Daniel cake, and finally Nicholas was aloud to open his presents in the candle light. He got a new portable CD player to listen and play along with on his new set of Drums. ( that he got from me , rented plus lessons)

What a great day ! and Happy Birthday Nic !

Another Nice Day !

Lies at my place in Amsterdam Noord, June 2001 for mom's 75th Birthday party

I'm sorry to report... its again a beautiful sunny day outside !!

I really don't know why more tourists don't take advantage of traveling to Toronto in September, its always nice weather and there is so much to do, plus the flights are half the price !

Yesterday, Mom and Lies went to City Hall to see the kick off party of Toronto Arts Week

Sunday is a large Book Market" Word on the Street"at Queens park, kind of like the"UitMarkt" in Amsterdam, Lies is looking forward to that, being the book worm that she is...

Tomorrow I see Lies again at Ineke's as we are having a big Birthday party for Nicholas, he is turning 15.( also the same day as Oma Bouma ) I have a big surprize for him.. I will take some more pictures, and of course with him playing his new.......... ????

I have to call Melinda and ask her about her amazing BBQ Rib recipe to serve up at tomrrows party....

Now back to work... lots of deadlines hanging over my head.... argh ! ;-0

Lies in Toronto * Day 3

Lies and Mom infront of my apartment building, notice Milo in between mom's legs !

Yesterday, Wednesday, Lies came over to my place for a lovely dinner. I wanted to really impress her and mom that I could indeed cook; and that I did not only know how to order in take out !

The menu was as follows: oven baked stuffed Chicken breast with French Goat Cheese, and pine nuts , baby carrots, Penne and fresh Sour dough bagette. For dessert fresh Raseberries with Rasberry Sorbet gelato. All accompined by a nice Canadian Red Wine.

Of course it was a great success. Lies and mom also enjoyed sitting out on the balcony and taking in the spectacular view of Downtown Toronto from up on the 16th floor, and seeing a sea of twinkeling city lights.


After dinner, of course at least 2 hours of ' na tafelen' I just love it when these two sisters get going with all there old stories about when they grew up, all the stories about ' pa ', opa Bouma, and the stores about the background of the paintings of his that I have up around my apartment.

At around 10pm Mom went back on her own to her house in her scooter( 2 blocks north of my place ) and I took Lies in the car for a City late night tour, showing her all the hot spots of Toronto Night life. ( the outside temp. at 10pm was a whopping 26 degrees ! )

All in all is was a really nice evening.... Today As I write... Lies in on a Double Decker bus Tour, seeing the sights and sounds of Toronto.

La famille est importante

Noordwijk 1989

Last night I went to airport to pick up my favorite Aunt arriving in from Amsterdam. Tante Lies ! She has'nt seen her sister, my mom in over 3 years, and hasn't been back in Toronto for 16 years. Of course seeing your extended family once again reminds me how important it is to stay in touch and also how lucky we all that we have such a large family and more importantly a LOVING family !

Although unfortunatly alot of them have died over the last 20 years. In the picture above, 4 of our loved ones have died. But happily all the kids are all grown up and are all in there teens.

Remember to tell your loved one, your daughter, your neice your partner every day that you love them, it will really make you feel good !

WOW great weather today, sunny summer is still here ... Tonight I will go down to beach with Milo and Lies !

The Horn is the Soul of the Orchestra !

Richard Strauss

Wow... last Saturday I had simply a wonderful time playing with the Oshawa Symphony. http://www.odso.ca/

We performed a fabulous program of: Strauss's - Also Zarathustra, Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe and Carmen's Flute Fantasy, by Bizet, with the Principal 1st Flutist from the Munich Philharmonic.

I had a simply great time playing the Strauss, this is REALLY what I am meant to do ! Play 1st horn in a symphony orchestra.. and all the time! I really love playing large challenging works. I love playing solos, I love the music, I just love to be on the stage and in the spot light, and feel the audience listening and enjoying every phrase I play to them.

I wish I could do this all the time !

Oh well it’s a great start… and who knows… as a good friend and mentor said to me when I arrived back in Toronto, “ Wendy it takes 5 years to re-establish your self here, what comes around goes around, good horn players will always be found and get to work ! “

HOW TO BE AN ARTIST IN TORONTO

Drawing by Eliane Duvekot

I have had a great week so far ! playing with Scarborough and Oshawa Sym has been a blast ! so much great music to perform. I am so glad I'm a horn player, its just so wonderful to perform great works of music, and enjoy it at the same time. I had to say that, because this is still my great love.. I love to be creative, and I just love being a creative artist in Canada.

Only....

many frustrations with others that live here.. like there simple english, old fashion way of thinking here. They are so afraid of change here... I had a meeting today with a good friend and fabulous Dutch Artist Eliane Duvekot ( http://www.duvekot.ca ) at my office. We were talking about the architecture , or lack of it in Toronto. I had mentioned how Toronto lacked in new exciting bold and or different building design. Its all brown or black or glass, boring square buildings ! The new addition to the Ontario College of Art is the only great thing that has been added to Toronto " skyline" for a while.
Ontario College of Art

Of course the CN Tower, New City Hall and the Sky Dome have now become the images of Toronto, but more is needed like this new OCA building. Two new additions are being built at the ROM and the Ontario Art Gallery, and hopefully, Torontoians will see how exciting change is !!!

To open your heart and mind to change is good for you, and makes you feel alive and keeps you young !