Singing and connecting are two words that in a way summarize the things I find important in my personal as well as my professional life. I think we can live our lives in a screaming way, in a whispering way, but also in a singing way: sometimes loud out, sometimes softly, often common, sometimes solo, but always with a certain direction and tuning in to others. I would describe myself as socially concerned, interested in people with different backgrounds and highly valuing sincerity.
Combining a bachelor in sociology and a bachelor in music provided me both integration in the world of social theory, and the experience of connecting socially via musical activity. Both of them gave me a certain insight in the complex and valuable establishment of social behaviour and social connectivity. On the one hand as a sideliner, describing and analysing social behaviours on a societal/statistical level; on the other hand as a participant in the field, in the role of ensemble-player, choir leader, music teacher and co-organizer of Christmas celebrations with refugees.
In the different activities I undertake, I hope to attribute to more, stronger and more sustainable connectivity between people of different backgrounds, to enhance mutual understanding and to improve people’s well-being by that. I believe providing doing activities together, and a certain common goal, can have a role in establishing this. I did some research on this during a choir project I led in 2019. You can find it here in the case you are interested, it is in Dutch:
The range of activities that can attribute to this process of sustainable connectivity is of course way broader: whether it is on a societal (policy) level, an institutional level or an interpersonal level. I have the unpretending belief that persons can impact this inclusive social embeddedness in a community or network, as long as it is done in a musical, harmonious and ‘singing’ way: not pretentious, egocentric or top-down, but by constantly tuning in, listening to others, taking initiative at the right moments, and of course being very much aware of the context you’re in.
You can look at my Curriculum Vitae by clicking on the button (version: august 2023).
