“In the late 50’s my dad was on his way to become a successful composer when he met my mother at a music festival right outside of London. She was a beautiful girl from The Netherlands who studied piano and that summer they fell in love. Back then there was no easy way to keep in touch so they promised to come back to the festival the following year. The next year my mother returned to the festival but my dad never showed up. He had got a job as a composer for a ballet company and he had fallen in love with a ballerina. It was quite devastating for my mother and after the festival she went back home. Later on she went to study piano in Vienna. One day she received a letter from a friend asking her if she remembered a certain David from the festival. He had spoken about my mother and had said that he would love to see her again. In spite of what had happened she decided to visit him. They spent the day together which went rather awkward. By the end of the day he brought her back to the station and just before she left he said: ‘’Well that is a pity’’. That one sentence suddenly broke the ice and that is when it all started. After a while they got married. My father became successful and that is why they decided to stay in London. They first had my brother and a few years later I was born. When I was three years old my father got a job offer at the conservatory of Twente here in The Netherlands. We moved to a very small and peaceful village. Still I never felt completely at ease. I ‘d rather spend my days at home than in school. Music was a big part of my upbringing. Whenever I heard the sound of a violin I would react so strongly that my parents decided to buy me a violin when I turned five. When I turned eleven my parents took me to violin classes on the in Amsterdam. Over here I felt a sense of belonging so when I finished school I decided to study in Amsterdam. Because of my music career I have been traveling and performing all over the place but this year I get to perform in Amsterdam during the Prinsengracht concert. For me this is a dream come true. Playing outside on the canals in front of all these people and moreover this concert is just around the corner of where I used to study violin when I was only eleven years old.”
''We had a complicated relationship. She had a tough childhood. When she was still a baby, her mother tried to jump out of the window while holding her. As a result, she wasn't affectionate with me. I was nine when I made my first portrait of her. She had the most...