My Story

The song “Don’t forget your roots” by the New Zealand band Six60 has been resonating in my head since I thought of putting together a bio. I’m so grateful for the wonderful people in my life who have helped and inspired me, starting with my mum and dad, Kees Verburg and Henny Tempelman who emigrated to New Zealand in October 1963, just before I was born. And my grandmother Geertruida Christina Elisabeth Koops who encouraged my parents to send me to music lessons, enrolling me then at the Christchurch School of Instrumental Music.

Shortly after arriving in Christchurch, while renting a one-bedroom cottage, my parents went exploring the new country and discovered a little paradise called Diamond Harbour. They instantly fell in love with the bay and moved there just in time for my birth. Later on I heard from a boat master on Lyttelton Harbour, that the name referred to the sun shining off the water sparkling in the bay.

Growing up in Diamond Harbour was like paradise, and so memorable, that many of us still do our best to stay in touch.

I grew up listening to an eclectic mix of albums from samples that my father would take home from his trips to Wellington when he worked for the Philips Record Label as a graphic artist. We lived on Banks Peninsula surrounded by paddocks so I could turn up the Rolling Stones, and Janis Joplin as loud as I liked.

My father liked to reminisce about growing up in Baarn with his friend Siem Keijzer who directed a children's choir and the Windy City Jazz Band specializing in New Orleans Jazz. 

Beatlemania was at fever pitch around the time I was born, the day after the fab four arrived in Wellington in June, 1964. It makes more sense now when I remember playing in my first orchestra with the CSIM in Christchurch, with conductor, Mr Dennis, directing “I wanna hold your hand” brimming with enthusiasm. We were a young rabble of a beginner orchestra and he would say “are you ready?” “ Give it all you’ve got” and then call out his favourite catchphrase “flat to the boards”.

Dutch was my first language which, still fresh from the Netherlands, my parents spoke at home while I was growing up. My first school classes were in the historic Stoddard Cottage, now an art gallery, where lessons were held while we waited for the new Diamond Harbour School to be completed. I loved school and would argue about not wanting to leave early on my first days. My mother remembered me standing at my desk, greeting her enthusiastically and telling her about what a great day I had, all in fluent Dutch, much to everyone's bewilderment.

I was lucky to have quite a laid-back and relaxed start at school. We had racing games to recite our times tables and sang around the piano with Mrs MacFarlane. After our new rather stern school principal arrived, Mr John Ramage, he taught us how to sail in the school pool, now how cool is that?

In the meantime, my father, an avid sailor, was building us a boat at home, and this was the start of more great adventures. After watching my father build his boat on the back lawn, it was amazing to end up sailing it on the harbour which we could see from our house perched on the hill below Mount Herbert, Te Ahu Pataki.

At the same time, I was very fortunate to move to the very best private flute lessons in Christchurch with Anthony Ferner which I enjoyed for a few years before his move to Australia.

Music sparks the imagination and connects in so many ways, sounds, space, and atmosphere. I remember lying in bed at night trying to listen to silence, it was so quiet and peaceful that you could hear the cows in the paddocks chewing.  We had an almost 360-degree view overlooking Lyttelton Harbour and it gave such a feeling of freedom and expanse.

Pottering around in boats and racing at the local Charteris Bay Yacht club taught me a great respect for the sea, nature and our precious environment. I witnessed the flotilla of small boats sailing out to the head of the harbour in protest against Nuclear Warships, in the early days before the David Lange government helped establish nuclear free New Zealand.

When our family moved up to Nelson, I was very fortunate to receive a grant from Creative New Zealand to fly up regularly to Wellington for flute lessons with NZSO player Felicity Bunt. I passed my grade 8 exam with distinction that year, the Poulenc flute sonata being one of my favourites and I remember having a great time playing the flute at Nelson Girls College assemblies with my pianist friend Sue Barker. We would play Handels “The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” really fast as the staff paraded into the hall with great ceremony.

The music scene in Nelson attracted the most vibrant and open minded personalities including flute players Bryan James and Richard Nunns who were both working as local teachers at the time. I joined in with their regular flute meet ups which were relaxed opportunities to play together.

At the same time, The Nelson School of Music was a thriving hive of activity under the directorship of Donald Maurice and I enjoyed participating in many concerts. Donald Maurice is hugely inspiring and a great arranger. We formed a group called “The South Street Wind Ensemble” with his father and Mr Maurice would arrange all his favourite pieces for us to play.

Around this time, flute player and conductor Uwe Grodd, arrived in Nelson on a visit from Germany and we were all in awe of his charisma and musicianship. Uwe performed the Cimarosa double flute concerto together with his partner Mary and the local Concert Orchestra creating a great impression.

Nelson was also host to the annual Nelson Composers Workshops and one sunny afternoon while I was practicing in a room upstairs at the School of Music, there was a knock at the door. Jack Body invited me to play the flute for the workshop that week. I was overwhelmed not knowing if I would be up to the task, but he assured me that I was good enough and that it would be loads of fun. Well, the following few days remain at the top of my list of musical experiences. Not only was I playing heaps of flute but it was all freshly created material by composers I could talk to.

This composing world was captivating and inspired me to reconnect with the first composition lessons I had at Cashmere High School with Dorothy Buchanan who taught me the basics of understanding chord symbols.

I also remained focused on my flute playing and met so many wonderful musicians when I went to University. I studied composition with David Farquhar, Jack Body, harmony, counterpoint and electronic music with Ross Harris. Those were days when we hung out in the old Hunter building, practicing in rooms we had lined with egg cartons for soundproofing. I made friends with brilliant pianists, Michele Binnie and Barbara Griffin. And a special highlight was when Judith Clark teamed me up to play the Hindemith Sonata with pianist Dan Poynton.

After completing a Bachelor of Music majoring in composition from Victoria University in Wellington I was able to return to Nelson and learn for a year from flute player and conductor, Uwe Grodd which was hugely rewarding. I also enjoyed the opportunity to rejoin the Nelson Symphony Orchestra as principal flute player.

A small group of us completed the “Diploma in Instrumental Music Teaching” run by the Nelson School of Music in conjunction with the Nelson Polytech. We had the wonderful pianist, Mark Secker, who could spin out all the flute repertoire. We were also very fortunate to have guitarist John Mills on the faculty at the time, who came over from England with his fellow guitarist and wife Cobie Mills.

That same year it was a privilege to hear Douglas Mews playing the pipe organ at the School of Music auditorium and at the Nelson Cathedral. He gave a concert there, a toccata & fugue by J.S.Bach, that was truly beautiful and powerful. A massive, and at the same time intricate, sound reverberating through the space, like you were standing in the wind. I think Leonie Holmes was composer in residence at the time and we were both so impressed that we asked if we could take lessons. I also joined his choir, Polyhymnos and we enjoyed many concerts and collaborations.

You may be forgiven at this stage for thinking, wow, she’s having a good time, but how did she pay the bills? Well, like so many artists, it’s often scraped together with bits and pieces. I started out picking and packing fruit on Nelson market gardens as a college student, the odd waitressing job and by the time I had a music degree under my belt I could build up more music teaching while facing the challenge of, can I actually work and have a life as a musician? First I had to get as good as I possibly could, so over the next few years while I worked hard and searched out the best flute teachers, I continued to support myself on odd jobs. 

While training full-time with Uwe Grodd, I was lucky enough to live near the Nelson city center and acquire a part-time job at the legendary Chez Eelco Cafe run by Eelco Boswijk. My Monday to Friday routine was to get up at 5.50 am, wash my face, ready to start at 6.00 am on the breakfast shift. By 9.00 am I had already worked three hours and was ready to start the day.

After an intensive year of flute study, I was ready to go overseas, I was keen to further my training and explore Europe so I applied for a tertiary study scholarship with the Netherlands Embassy and saved for a one-way ticket to Amsterdam.

After witnessing the heartbreak growing up, of leaving family behind, for my parents, I was absolutely determined that I would return to New Zealand and I set myself a time limit of ten years. New Zealand is my home, I love it here, and I eventually did make it back, just in time.

It was a special moment to arrive at Schiphol airport after dreaming of meeting my extended family for so long. I hadn’t seen my grandmother (Oma Verburg) since her last trip to New Zealand when I was a young child and I had wanted to go with her on the plane.

I arrived in August just before the start of the European academic year and after receiving an enthusiastic letter from Ton Hartsuiker, the director of the Music Conservatorium in Utrecht I decided to register there. I met him in his office and he had a very professional manner while being warm and friendly at the same time. He insisted that the first thing I needed to do was organise medical insurance while he inquired with the flute department whether my audition tape was good enough to grant me entry. Around this time I also heard back from Nuffic that I had been awarded the study scholarship so I was over the moon.

And so I started my musical journey in the Netherlands with flute lessons with Abbie de Quant at the Utrecht Conservatorium. While my focus had been on developing a strong, rich and sonorous tone, Abbie taught me a French style with purity of tone, precise, delicate and refined. It took a while for me to gain her trust but I can forgive her for  being sceptical of this strange girl from New Zealand speaking Dutch with a weird accent.

One of the best experiences I had was being invited to join the Domcantorij, a choir directed by Maarten Kooij. We would sing every week in St Martin’s Cathedral; Domkerk, one of Europe's largest and most impressive cathedrals in the heart of Utrecht. The space was amazing and it was uplifting to sing there.

By this stage I had found a place to live in Ijsselstein close to some of my extended family and about a 45 minute bike ride from the city. It was a detached house surrounded by gardens with the rooms being rented out by a local farming family. The house was in an odd state of repair as the family had given up on having the building completed after one of their children had passed away. Nevertheless I had a spacious room and a roof over my head.

I remember going to a local hair salon in Ijsselstein and after years of hair dressers battling my unruly mop of red hair, this guy gave me the best advice, he told me how cool my hair was and that the best thing I could do was to let it grow longer. I never looked back.

But by the end of the year, I was struggling to keep my spirits up. I would go for long runs and swim at the local pool to try and boost endorphins and stave off depression. I made the mistake of taking flute lessons at my teacher's home instead of at the Conservatorium and I became increasingly isolated.

When I was pretty much at my lowest point, out of the blue my grandmother phoned me and asked me how I was getting on. As I was seriously questioning my ability to keep going, my normally extremely practical, no nonsense, down to earth grandmother said “what is your heart telling you?”, and it was the most encouraging thing she could have said. I literally picked my flute back up and played for myself. I’m not into half baked, it’s all or nothing for me and I realised I was good enough. I made a plan and auditioned with flute player Raymond Delnoye who happened to live not too far away. He welcomed me to the Conservatorium in Tilburg and I spent a fabulous year there including lessons with Hannie Barendrecht. A highlight was playing the Chaminade Flute Concerto.

I made many friends at the Tilburg Conservatorium and took up the opportunity to play with talented musicians,  forming a duo with guitarist Eddie Franken and with pianist Judith Worms. I joined a jazz band led by Paul Spoelstra with Kees Van Eijck on Bass and Eric Van Soelen on piano. I refreshed my piano playing as a second instrument and joined in with all the theory classes so that I could improve my Dutch and meet people. I was determined not to be shy and I found ways to start up conversations wherever I went.

I made friends with percussionist Rob Snijders who one day very casually mentioned that his teacher had organised a rendezvous in Amsterdam with Stockhausen. I said, “do you mean Karlheinz Stockhausen?” He said, “yes, why?” I said, “you have got to be kidding me, can I come?” He said “sure I’ll ask my teacher”, and so I experienced sitting in a great hall waiting for Karlheinz Stockhausen. He was very tall and made a deliberately grand entrance which was a performance in itself. He had an entourage of three nearly equally tall women in high heels and about five poodles. Then he stood centre stage and commanded all the lights to be switched off one by one so he could determine what was making that disturbing humming sound.

The following summer I embarked on a holiday to Paris and the South of France with my friend Ilse Vromans. We took our flutes and a bundle of duets with us, busking on the Champs Elysees, drinking French coffee, and climbing the Eiffel Tower. Ilse trusted my travel instincts and she could speak some French so between the two of us we had a ball.

I also made it to the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague with my cousins Mischa and Pete. It was just amazing to see so many global legends of Jazz all in one venue. Mathilde Santing, Patti Brown, Miles Davis, B.B. King, Oscar Peterson, James Brown, Van Morrison, Dizzy Gillespie, Horace Silver, Kenny G, the Willem Breuker Collectief, and more.

All the while my Dutch was also improving so I was able to take up various teaching positions at local music schools and by the time I left the Netherlands, I had been all over the country.

There was a small lake not far from the Conservatorium in Brabant where on those brilliantly fine sunny days a bunch of us would go to hang out and cool off. Kees was there with his brother Willem who took me totally by surprise speaking fluent English and we hit it off immediately. Willem was living in Ireland at the time and I had the privilege of going there, meeting his friends, and immersing myself in Irish culture and music. Willem also has an older brother Jan Van Eijck who would later invite us to rent an apartment at his house in Amsterdam.

At the same time I heard about flute masterclasses being held in Amsterdam with Europe's best and finest flute players, this was something I couldn’t miss.

After being recommended to Rien de Reede of the Concertgebouw Orkest I had some lessons and auditioned to study with him and Thies Roorda at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in the Hague. Here was a melting pot of international talent and I took full advantage of actively participating in many international masterclasses. Highlights were William Bennett, Aurele Nicolet, Andras Adorjan, Peter Lukas-Graf, and Trevor Wye.

Rien de Reede and Thies Roorda are truly inspiring, they ran a well-developed, very grounded, well-balanced, and thorough flute teaching program at the Hague Conservatorium and it was an amazing experience to be mentored by them.

I also highly recommend their Italian summer flute intensives held in Tuscany.

While studying at the Hague I formed a duo with Russian Pianist Irina Parfjenowa, she is a fabulous musician and we enjoyed many memorable performances with favourites including the Sonata Undine by Reinecke and the Arpeggione Sonata by Schubert.

For my graduation recital I played one of my favourite pieces, the Bach Trio Sonata in G Major, BWV 1038 with top-class musicians Juditha Haeberlin on violin, Douw Fonda on cello, and Jan Karlsson on Harpsichord.

Another highlight was being joined by top-class musicians Anna McMichael on violin, Noortje Kohne on viola, Anita Gude on viola, and Douw Fonda on cello for the Romberg Quintet.

During this time I also had the privilege of making friends and playing with the legendary Greenpeace activist and leader, Steve Sawyer, at the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, in his blues band. He was a crew member on the Rainbow Warrior when it was bombed in 1985 and one of the key figures together with New Zealander Bunny McDiarmid in the huge initiative of relocating the Rongelap community away from the fall out of French nuclear testing in the Pacific.

His memory lives on and his friends have created a page on Spotify dedicated to a playlist of his favourite songs.

I have been very fortunate to be able to return to New Zealand and live on the beautiful Kapiti Coast with my family. The natural beauty of our environment continues to inspire me and I love being so close to the sound of the sea.