May 1st 2018, Frank on Facebook: Sanctuary Song: From fear to joy. I've been composing quite a few pieces by now, for carillon and together with André Rieu. But now, my first big composition for orchestra, choir and soloists will be performed on June 1, 2018 in Maastricht! It has become quite a big performance with over 220 musicians on stage. I guess that's what you could expect when you ask somebody from André's orchestra! The piece is composed for the big festival 'Heiligdomsvaart' (a religious festival, dating back to the Middle Ages) which takes place every seven years in Maastricht. It is about the life of Saint Servaas, the patron of Maastricht. So, if you don't want to wait until 2025 to hear it, book your tickets online now! (See the link below).

Limburger, 31st of August 2018. by Pascale Thewissen. Translation by Ineke and John. Carillon is like good cognac: nice, but the youth does not warm up to it, How do you make the carillon 'sexy' again? That is the main question during the Festival "Klinkend Erfgoed" (Resounding Legacy). By placing a heavy beat under it, for example. City carilloneur Frank Steijns about the future of music by bells. He was five years old back then, and Frank Steijns already knew he wanted to be a carilloneur. "My father was city carillonneur of Maastricht. I was still a little boy when in 1976 he warmed up the new carillon. The old one had burnt down in 1955. The entire Vrijthof was filled and I thought: that's what I want." Legacy Steijns - besides being a carillonneur and also a violinist with André Rieu - has a mission: he wants to make bell music hip again. The carillon - and also the organ - dusting it off, showing it off and ensuring that the bells are not only being used for church music only. That is exactly the focus of the Festival "Klinkend Erfgoed" which starts Friday in Maastricht and lasts until next Wednesday. Steijns: "We have a very good legacy, the carillon of the town hall is 'the pièce de résistance' of baroque bell-casting art. It does not get any better than that. Also the organs of the Saint Servatius Church and Our Lady's Basilica are from a sublime era, so if we wanted to do it anywhere well, it might as well be here in Maastricht." New daylight We, in this case, they are Steijns, Marcel Verheggen, the organist of the Sint Servaas Basilica, and Hans Leenders, cantor-organist of Our Dear Lady's Basilica. "The three of us govern the sounding legacy of Maastricht, and together we created a program in which we want to feature these old instruments. We are going to make crossover programs." Normally when you play a carillon, you just hear the bells. But now we are going play them along with synthesizers, we have a soprano who will be singing up in the tower and DJ's who will come and play there. We'll connect the bells to opera and jazz, to trance and technico." Wooden tower So will Steijns performs Saturday evening at half past eight at the Bruis festival. It promises to be quite spectacular. "Dance, trance the bells" is what Steijns' concert will be called, and producer/composer is Robin Kampschoer. In a kind of wooden tower Steijns will play his mobile carillon, with an underlying heavy beat. "They have never done that anywhere before. I wonder how the audience will react. I hope they think: that sounds nice." An idea competition has also been sent out; "Hack the Bells" with an approach of: "what would you do with a carillon?" From that really great ideas have arisen, but I cannot say too much about that until the award ceremony." Also on the program: a bells relay, with carillons from Dutch and Belgian Limburg, Venlo, Heerlen, and from Weert to Peer - are all being played by international carillon students. In turmoil. Steijns: "When I started in 1994, this was a 17th-century instrument which you had to treat as such: you had to play Bach and Mozart on it and my father did that very nicely, but I never saw anyone from the terraces look up high or whistle along with the song. The song: "Most dreams are a deception" by Marco Borsato (Dutch singer) was a hit at that time. I thought: then I'll play that music. The entire carillon world was in an uproar, because that's not how you treat such an old instrument. But the people on the terraces liked it. Sting In the meantime we are 25 years further along. Two weeks ago, the carilloneur of Utrecht gave a concert of Sting-and-The Police songs in the Domtower. This is how we try to bring the carillon back to the people. We need to make the transition from an old-fashioned and dusty instrument to an instrument which also has a future. It's a bit like a good cognac: very tasty, but the youth does not have a taste for it. Unknown is unloved, is what he is trying to say, and that's exactly what he wants to change. Soniferous The carillon of the town hall. The organ of Our Lady's Basilica and the organ of the Saint Servatius Basilica. They belong to the 'sounding legacy'. If it is up to the foundation "Klinkend Erfgoed Nederland", Maastricht will be the center in 2020 during the European year of the Sound Legacy. In June, a 'bid book' was presented to Susan Lammers, general director of the National Cultural Heritage Agency, with ideas, plans and activities. The Festival "Klinkend Erfgoed Maastricht", which starts today and lasts until Wednesday, is a pilot program that must demonstrate the feasibility - programmatic and financial - of "Sounding 2020

Festival ”Klinkend Erfgoed” (Resounding Legacy), Maastricht. August 30th - September 4th, 2018. video by Marjo Le Comte.