At the beginning of 2023, I had the great pleasure to start one of the projects that keeps me more motivated at the moment: We are because they were, a performance created by Don·nes Trio. This trio is formed by Eider Armendariz (violin), Mirjam Kwebeman (saxophone) and myself, who got to know each other during our Master in ArtEZ University of the Arts (Zwolle, The Netherlands).
Playing with friends is always such a great experience, as not only music is flowing on stage, but also a very personal connection that is impossible to hide. For this occasion, we decided to perform Suite for Trio, composed by the Armenian composer Alexander Arutiunian. At first, there was no special reason to choose this piece (just that the three of us loved it, which was enough of an excuse to play it!). However, everything changed when we realised that the three of us felt almost the same emotions after listening to the first movement of the piece.
This movement, brought to our minds a feeling of grief, introspection and connection to your roots. It made us remember the old stories of our families, which in one way or another, were affected by wars and conflicts in their countries. Therefore, we decided to start working on an out-of-the-box performance, in which we could create a safe space for the audience to connect with our roots and also to their own stories and feelings. For this, there would never be a better title than We are because they were.
This performance started to take shape in January 2023, and since then, it keeps growing and growing every day. During the last few months, we had the opportunity to present this performance in some venues in Zwolle (Academiehuis Grote Kerk, Stadkamer) and Amersfoort (Flint), and have received coachings by Marlies Bosmans (stage director, actress and script writer), Johan van der Linden (saxophonist) and Ria Marks (actress and writer). Besides, we participated in the SeptemberMe Academy 2023, organised by the members of the Ragazze Quartet, who also coached us with our performance.
Don·nes Trio keeps developing this performance and will be back soon with dates and updates. Stay tuned!