I joined K&G 3 in the Pieterskerk, Leiden, the burial place of Pilgrim Father John Robinson, for two jam-packed Christmas Eve services.
With thanks to René Lekkie, Margreet Klokke, Willeke Smits, Jos, Thijs, and the team who organised the services and made them happen.
Happy Christmas!
The Dutch Veterans’ Institution provides support for veterans and their loved ones.
Singing at the Veterans’ Institution is a beautiful and emotionally challenging experience. On the one hand, there is the pleasure of sharing the joy I find in music with others. On the other hand, there is the awareness of the physical and mental suffering of those who chose to serve in the Dutch armed forces.
Lyrics can take on different meanings in this context. The silence of “Silent Night” May be a truce, rather than simply the middle of the night. “Amazing Grace” feels like it is about the luck – or grace – of surviving.
It was a joy and an honour to join Natiliia and Slava Cioban, the Band of Liberation and Simon Dubbelaar to perform in their annual Christmas concert.
Possibly the most confronting event of the year, worldwide candle-lighting day brings those who have experienced bereavement after the death of a young person together for a moment of reflection.
The event has been held in Leiden for ten years now. Candles are lit, names are read out, and photos are shown.
Perhaps most magical is the reception afterwards, where the sorrow transforms into warmth and laughter. I cannot begin to imagine the depths of sorrow people feel at the loss of a young person, a child, toddler, baby, stillborn, or miscarriage. But I can imagine that coming together and knowing one is not alone may help in this process.
With thanks to Xenia Hospice and the Leiden City Council for organising and hosting this event for a decade.
I joined opera singers Nataliia and Slava Cioban for a Christmas tattoo in Leiden, together with K&G, Flora Band, and the Band of Liberation.
One audience member was there in a hospital bed with a team of medics as her last wish, even in the freezing cold. It was moving to sing in what is generally a joyful and festive event knowing that she was there.
What a joy it was to sing for members of the Officers’ Mess of The Hague at their Christmas ball at Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin, the Netherlands. With seventeen generals present, we took a moment to remember absent friends and toasted the king and queen, each with an accompanying song. I also sang the first dance number, accompanied by a pop band – it was tremendously fun to sing in a different style, deliberately avoiding the beat.
What a joyful evening! Yesterday the QPO Foundation organised a dinner onboard SS Rotterdam, the former flagship of the Holland America line, with guests from the Netherlands, the UK, and the US, including our minister of defence, Ruben Brekelmans.
It was truly an honour to present the Dutch marines’ hymn, in a special arrangement by Ron Cuijpers, with the combo of the Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy.
It was lovely to join the West Yorkshire Police Band on their tour to Belgium to sing on this year’s armistice day. We performed in the Menin Gate and at Tyne Cot Cemetery. Still more heart-warming was seeing the many people who made the pilgrimage to Ypres.
The officers and soldiers who fought in the Battle of Passchendaele passed through Ypres, so it is poignant that those who were reported missing – those who died and whose bodies were never found, so those who have no grave – are commemorated on the Menin Gate. This gave the people they left behind a place to remember them.
Still more poignant is the fact that the immense Menin Gate, with its 54,593 names, was too small to commemorate all the missing. New Zealanders and those who were missing after 16th August 1917 are commemorated at Tyne Cot – a further 35,971 men and boys, along side 11,961 grave, 8,373 of which contain unidentified people.
We supported the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate and the annual commemoration at Tyne Cot on 11th November, in the presence of various diplomats and other VIPs.
