Interview: Remy van Kesteren

Our only male harpist at the Israel Competition this year is Remy van Kesteren, from the Netherlands. He studies with Erika Waardenburg at the Utrecht Conservatory. We have been enjoying sharing ideas on music with Remy, as he has strong and thoughtful opinions on the direction that our generation should lead the harp world. At just the age of 20, he is artistic director of the First International Harp Competition & Festival in the Netherlands, which will be held March 23-27, 2010.

What is your favorite piece on the program?

The Ginastera concerto.

The whole piece or is there a specific movement that you like?

I like the whole piece. But then, I wouldn't like it without the second movement. I think it can be incredible. Of course, audiences prefer the first or third movements; the third movement is fun and rhythmical, and orchestrated in a very, very good way. It creates a really special atmosphere. But I like the second movement because there's a certain tension throughout, and if you can hold this as a harpist, then that's just awesome.

Why did you decide to do this competition?

Going to Israel is like a dream come true for me. I have planned to go to Israel all my life. I heard about it for the first time when Gwyneth Wentink won in 1998.  I immediately thought "I have to go there," because my teacher told us it's the biggest competition.  When I was six and I had just started playing the harp, my mother would play recordings of Turlough O'Carolan, and I was really impressed. She told me that everyone in Ireland still knows him, even though he died 300 years ago. So then - I was still little and thought about it awhile to grasp the idea of being so famous... and a few minutes later I asked my mother, "Is it also possible to be the most famous harpist of the whole world?"

This was your goal?

Yes, at the age of six, this is what I had in mind. So when I heard of Israel, when I was 10, I knew I had to go there. Since, if it's the biggest competition, it will lead me to my goal. Of course, now my goal has changed. I still would like to become a famous harpist, but that's no longer my goal. Competing in Israel was still in my mind, though, because if I decide things, I always do them. I decided that I would be going to Israel back when I was ten, and I hoped that I was going to win... but this we have to see!

So what are these other goals?  Can you tell us about the competition you are planning in the Netherlands?

The competition is going to be awesome, I hope. It's going to be different in a lot of ways. For instance, the jury; we're going to have a totally different setup. Since we hear of some strange, miraculous results in competitions... sometimes the results just aren't because of the music. They have political reasons or just spite between different teachers and different techniques. In general, it's a crazy idea that a lot harpists who all fight for a couple of concert spaces decide together who's going to be their next colleague and competitor. That's a really strange thing, and I never really got that.  In our competition, the majority of the members will be non-harpists.

We're going to have the first stage behind a screen. The audience will know who's playing but the jury won't, so it's only, purely about the music. The second round of course will be without the screen. I think the visual aspect is very important, but music should come first always.

Then, what I think is the most important thing that's lacking in harp competitions is what you get out of it. They are often not rewarding in that sense. Sometimes you get some money, sometimes you can pay your travel expenses. Our competition offers some monetary prizes, because it's always nice to get money even if it's just to repay expenses, but much more important is to get a career out of it. You can get a million-dollar check out of a competition and have no career whatsoever, so what's the use? (Well, you could use it for promotion of course.) It would be much more useful to get people concerts after the competition. For this first competition I don't know what we will be able to achieve, but we'll do our best to put these and other ideas into practice. The application deadline is only in two months, but we already have a lot of applications. Our limit is 32, and I think we'll pass it, which is really awesome for a first competition!

If there will be a second competition, which will depend on if this one is a success, we will spend half the energy on setting up an agency somewhat like what they have for the big violin competitions, to get concerts for the winners. I feel that we in the harp world are keeping ourselves down. We still think we're such a tiny group, we have to stick together and fight the big world. I always get a very nasty feeling when people say, "We have to stick together, we're harpists." We should grow out of that! We want to be taken seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously.  The harp has a great potential to be a big part of the music world!

An important part of our competition which I forgot to mention was that there is also a festival organized around the competition and opportunities to see concerts. Every competitor who doesn't pass on to the next stage will get a masterclass; everything will be recorded, and everyone will receive written comments from the jury.

It's going to be a short week, but I hope that we can draw an audience and make it a nice event.