For harp teacher Lotje Meijer, Platform C is a very familiar place. As a child she took harp lessons here herself and now she has been on the other side of the classroom for almost fourteen years. “That remains special,” she says. “That you can now accompany new students in the same place where you took lessons yourself.”
Music from home
Lotje grew up in a musical family with two musicians as parents. Making music was natural at home and she was encouraged to choose an instrument that suited her. At an early age that became the harp.
Although she played less for a period in her youth, the instrument continued to attract her. Through a side job accompanying dance and movement classes on harp, she picked up playing seriously again. She auditioned for the conservatory and eventually became a professional musician.
Custom Harples
In her lessons, Lotje works with students on technique and their musical development, tailored to their level. At the same time, there is room for what students themselves would like to play. Lotje then adapts the sheet music to make it playable for the harp. This keeps the lessons varied and students play music they really like.
Ensemble
In addition to individual classes, Lotje also leads the harp ensemble that she set up within Platform C. Ensembles already existed for many other instruments, but not yet for harp. She thought that was a shame. “I thought: why don't we have that? Harp is just so much fun to play together.”
She started a children's ensemble and soon a project orchestra for adults. Many adult learners turned out to be equally enthusiastic about the idea of making music together.
Adults regularly sign up to discover the project orchestra online. Often they used to play the harp and see this as a fun way to pick it up again. “Then they get their harp out again and start over. I think that's really great.”
A big advantage is that the harps at Platform C are on location. That makes playing together a lot easier.
From classical to folk music
A wide repertoire is played in the ensemble and project orchestra. Lotje makes many custom arrangements and deliberately chooses different styles. “We play all kinds of things: classical, but also folk music. Irish and Scottish music works very well on harp, and also South American music, where the harp plays an important role in folk music.”
For the next block, she is thinking about light music and film music. “We haven't done that very often before, but I think it would be really fun to play that too.”
Passing on music
What Lotje finds so valuable about teaching is that she often gets to mentor students for years. “You see kids come in when they're six and sometimes they keep playing until they go to college. That's very special. And I also have adults well into their seventies. It's nice to see people of different ages grow in their playing.”
“Making and sharing music is already wonderful. But teaching someone else how to do it myself is even more wonderful.”
Curious about harp?
Do you want your child to play in the ensemble? Or are you looking for a fun way to pick up harp playing again? At Platform C you can go for harp lessons, the harp ensemble and the projectorkest harp. You are welcome to experience it for yourself.
