INTERVIEW WITH RAYMOND JANSSEN THE STAR WARS SUITE

December 14, 2018

Interview with Raymond Janssen the ‘Star Wars Suite’ from John Williams:

Maaike Schaap

Journalist,  New Publishers, Groningen

‘I am grateful that I am able to accomplish my life with music’

Music comes to life in Martini Plaza. Conductor and pianist Raymond Janssen proves this again and again. He performs as a conductor in Groningen with, among others, The Star Wars Suite and A Christmas Carol. ‘In The Star Wars Suite we play only film music which is very different from, for example, a Beethoven piece. In a film much can happen in five minutes and the music will change as well. ‘

Raymond Janssen studied in various cities in Europe. From Aachen and Cologne to Düsseldorf and Paris. In the past years he has experienced many concert halls in Europe. ‘I have performed in concert halls throughout Europe for 20 years as a pianist and I was fortunate to work with singers from great and famous opera houses. At the same time I was also practicing as a conductor. ‘

Intuitive

As a conductor, Janssen flies all over the world. Sometimes he performs in a concert hall several times with the same rendition of a piece. Isn’t this boring? ‘Each concert is not the same. And once it starts to get bored it is time to do something different. However, it is important to find an approach in order to make it a little bit different every single time. Finally, this becomes second nature.” Janssen claims to be very intuitive. “I am not someone who plans proceedings exactly in advance. Only at the moment we start I will choose the path we will going to follow.” This marks his enormous career.

Is he proud of his career? “Proud is not the right word. I am very grateful. Thankful that I can accomplish my life with music and that I can do and share this with quite a lot of people. This makes me very happy. ‘