Our team

As a young musician I had the great luck to get support, not only from my family but also from different foundations, bursaries and trusts. I had the great pleasure to be artistically involved with a project organized through the Stichting Bevordering Jong Talent a few years ago and had a wonderful click with Nadia Eliseeva, who, despite not being a professional musician herself, understands very well that young talents need support and a stage to develop further and become successful professional musicians. It is a great honour to be able to join this wonderful team now and hopefully help more young talented musicians reach the top!

Although my background and experience is in finance (I am an auditor and partner in an audit firm), my vocation is in developing young talent. This is demonstated daily in our audit firm, were we work with talented students and interns, developing them into professionals. Hence my passion for the purpose of the Foundation. In addition, arts are an important instrument to overcome cultural differences and a great tool to start listening to each other, a quality that is very well needed nowadays.

This work combines everything I ever dreamed of professionally: my passion for classical music, my love for culture, and, of course, the children. When we first brought talented young musicians From Russia to the Netherlands, to perform at the festival “Winteravonden aan de Amstel”, hearing them play turned my world around. My priorities shifted. I felt this was something to give my life a meaning – help talented kids develop their musical identity and let the world hear them shine. So now when asked “How many children do you have?” I answer: “Somewhere around 500”.

I am glad to be part of this excellent team. Being a professional violinist as well as a teacher with many years of experience, I consider it my personal duty – not only to transfer knowledge and experience to the future stars of musical Olympus, but also to surround them with care and support, in the same way our great teachers at the Moscow Central Special School of Music, the Moscow Conservatory and the Conservatory of Amsterdam once did for me.