Anouk Sturtewagen

Instrument: harp
With Flanders Symphony Orchestra since: 2005

Why did you choose your instrument?

A lucky coincidence! I already played violin and piano and spent a good many hours at the academy. A new harp class was set up, but there were hardly any students at the time. Since I was at the academy that day anyway, the headmistress asked if I wanted to start harp as well. 

What do you do besides being a musician with Flanders Symphony Orchestra?

I teach young harpists at the conservatories of Ghent and Brussels and have also been associated for years as a harp teacher at Academy De Kunstbrug. Furthermore, I can express my artistic talents in the productions I make with the ensemble Revue Blanche, in which Caroline Peeters (first flautist of SOV) also plays!

Do you have a ritual before you go on stage?

Tuning... I can't tune behind the scene, because my instrument is already on stage. But I do enjoy those few minutes of tuning on stage as the audience slowly trickles into the hall.

What is your most memorable concert with Flanders Symphony Orchestra?

A concert I will not forget easily was a few years ago in the Netherlands. We were performing Sibelius' beautiful First Symphony and Kristiina Poska fell ill! Martijn Dendievel then came to fill in at the last minute. There was a palliative patient in the hall that day who wished to hear Sibelius live one last time. We saw his sickbed at the end of the hall and suddenly that concert was about life and death. Martijn threw himself into that evening and took the whole orchestra to another level.