World class chamber music group The Camerata RCO Ensemble to give Impromptu Classical Concerts performance at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Feb. 17
Music lovers who enjoy the classics will thrill to the chamber music group The Camerata RCO (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra) Ensemble when they visit Key West for an Impromptu Classical Concerts performance at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 17. The concert is the third of the 2019 Impromptu season.
This impressive ensemble is composed of musicians whose love of chamber music inspires them to divert time from busy schedules as members of one of the world’s greatest orchestras to express their appreciation of the chamber repertoire in a smaller ensemble.
As an group, these musicians find it refreshing to better know their colleagues from the orchestra while being free to choose the players, the pieces they play and even where they perform.
In the string section, the valuable instruments they play are virtually all antique and superbly crafted.
Violinist Marc Daniel van Biemen joined the first violin section of the RCO at the age of 24. He is presently the orchestra’s concertmaster and was a leader jn the formation of the Camerata RCO.
Violinist Annebeth Webb is another co-founder of the Ensemble.
“We love playing chamber music so much,” Webb said. “We’re lucky to be able to combine the best of both worlds–orchestra and ensemble.”
 Webb studied at the Manhattan School of Music and plays on a 1711 violin built by Neapolitan instrument maker, Nicolaus Gagliano.
Jeroen Woustra, a widely known chamber music violist, joined the viola section of the RCO in 2000. As a chamber musician Woudstra collaborates with musicians like Emanuel Ax, Kyoto Hashimoto, and Joshua Bell. He plays a circa 1790 viola from the instrument collection of the RCO Foundation in Amsterdam.
Cellist Joris van den Berg is a recipient of the musician Gold Medal, Netherland’s highest award in performance. Soon after making his debut at the Concertgebouw hall, in 2006 he won first prize at the Dutch National Cello Competition. He plays a 1703 Giovanno Granino cello made available to him by the Dutch National Musical Instrument Foundation.
Double bassist Rob Dirksen, while still a student at the Conservatories of Utrecht and Rotterdam, was appointed principal bassist with the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra—a post he would hold for 10 years. During a tour in the USA he found his current  instrument, built by G. Pedrassini in 1907.
Clarinetist Hein Wiedijk founded the Trio Dante, with pianist Frank van de Laar and cellist Larissa Groeneveld, winning a number of prizes at international competitions. Since 1995 he has been a member of the RCO.
 Jos de Lange graduated college with an honors degree in mathematics before making his way to Amsterdam to study bassoon. He had begun to play the bassoon at the age of 19 after having played the clarinet for ten years.
“I chose the bassoon because it has the most beautiful sound imaginable,” he said. “And it’s very similar to the sound of the human voice.”
De Lange has been a member of RCO since 1982.
Horn player Rob van de Laar has said “Through my music I speak.”
At the age of 21 he became a member of the Hague Philharmonic Orchestra and was principal horn from 2008 until 2013. Van de Laar received the Netherland’s Dutch Music Award, the highest accolade that can be awarded by the Performing Arts Fund to a young, talented musician in the field of classical music.
At the Feb. 17 concert, the Camerata RCO Ensemble will perform “Czech Suite, Op. 39 for Wind Octet,” by Antonín Dvořák, as well as “Octet in F major, D 803,” by Franz Schubert.

The concert will take place at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 401 Duval St. Tickets for the concert cost $20, and are available at www.keystix.com, or at the door on the afternoon of the event. Cash, checks, or credit/debit cards accepted. Students will be admitted free. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

For more information visit www.keywestimpromptu.org

 

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