History of the Gypsy Academy

I would like to realize with these children a dream which I have had since a long time: to found a CHILDRENS FOLK ORCHESTRA in The Hague – an orchestra where also the youngest 6-year-olds can play together with the oldest 12/14-year-olds. Folk music, gypsy music, Klezmer music, tango, waltzes and popular melodies from the classics (musicals, opera, operettas and cinema). An orchestra where you learn to play the violin, where you learn to play music together while playing folk music: a kind of GYPSY ACADEMY…

Here, in such a beautiful city, an emblem of peace and justice, a lot of communities joined, leaving behind their countries, to learn how to live happily together. Spanish, English, German, Italian, Dutch, French, Turkish, Iranian, Chinese, American, Canadian: a lot of families gather for violin lessons with Juffie Stieneke for their children from different parts of Europe and also from the rest of the world.

In the international schools children learn from their differences, mixing many languages or cultural backgrounds. In everyday life and in the Suzuki group violin lessons, sharing with Dutch children extra curriculum activities or simply playing with the boy or the girl next door, they assimilate also the Dutch language and culture. Even if they speak English, they do believe in Sinterklaas. They are not expats but international world citizens! And so are the Dutch children who learn about different habits outside the violin lessons.

They also are able to figure out and celebrate Europe. The Gypsy Academy-project is to gather them in music.

“We are full of admiration for the gypsies. How they play their instrument. How they play violin with such a joy and freedom and how they seem to improvise”

Welcome to everyone, wherever you may come from.

When I saw Herr Martin Schaefer work with children in 2006 in Turin during an international Suzuki Convention. I heard my own pupils and parents talk about him enthusiastically, I dared to ask him to work with all of my students in The Hague. He accepted my invitation to teach in our annual

In The Hague we have  established a Gypsy Academy where this spirit is omnipresent, thanks to Herr Schaefer…!

Juffie Stieneke  geeft al meer dan 40 jaar enthousiast vioolles volgens de Suzuki-methode. Veel van haar leerlingen stroomden op jonge leeftijd door naar het Koninklijk Conservatorium en staan nu op internationale concertpodia of geven inmiddels zelf vioolles. Vele anderen spelen met plezier als hobby in orkesten.

Stieneke vindt vioolles geven aan kinderen het leukste beroep dat er bestaat en verwondert zich elk jaar weer over hoe een kind van niets tot iet komt, en na twee maanden ineens Kortjakje kan spelen, een jaar later vibreert en na 2 ½ jaar een Vivaldi concert over het voetlicht kan brengen.
De jaarlijkse Pinksterworkshop maakt kinderen en ouders elke keer opnieuw enthousiast. Leerkrachten uit Engeland, Amerika, Ierland, Frankrijk en België geven in een andere taal les en letten weer op andere dingen, terwijl de liedjes hetzelfde zijn.

Sinds het vertrek  van Herr Schaefer uit Den Haag in 2017 wegens ziekte nodigde Stieneke twee andere Volks- en Zigeunermuziek specialisten uit. oudleerlinge Annemarie van Prooijen en Noa Eyl. Meer ver hen volgt later.Zij inspireren de huidge generatie kindeen op hun beurt enorm!

En Stieneke op haar beurt draagt de kennis van de Gyspy muziek over op kinderen  en hun leraren en begeleiders in Zuid Afrika, ( Durban, Pretoria, Kaapstad)  Indonesie en Bali, USA ( Bloomington, Brooklyn, New York)