Biography
Brenda
started playing harp at age 7. Six years later, she was admitted to
the 'Young Talent' department of the Rotterdam Conservatory, where she
studied with Teresia Rieu for over 8 years. It was during this period
that she developed a very solid base both technically and musically.
After graduating Bachelor in Music, Brenda received a VSB grant to study
in Germany with Helga Storck, where her performance skills and orchestra
playing where brought to a higher level. This resulted in her winning
the auditions for both the European Union Youth Orchestra (led that
year by Bernard Haitink) and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra
(with Christoph Eschenbach) in the summer of 1999.
Brenda
concluded her classical training by returning to the Rotterdam Conservatory,
where Godelieve Schrama helped her refine her technique and musical
sensitivity.
Parallel to her activities in classical music, Brenda made several early escapades
to jazz harp by taking lessons and workshops with
Deborah Henson-Conant, Park Stickney and Carrol McLaughlin. Since 2005,
Brenda is actively involved in the world of jazz harp. Both in playing
and in spreading the gospel: together with fellow harpist Sabine
Meijers, she founded the International Jazz Harp Foundation in August '07.
Nowadays, she is mainly playing jazz and blues, groovy improv with violin, lounge and dance music with DJ, and free improvisation with bassoon, dance, painting and poetry.
Brenda is available for occasional private lessons and regularly teaches jazz & blues harp workshop with Sabine Meijers for the International Jazz Harp Foundation.
She is currently developing a Double Action Pitch Bend Electric Lever Harp. A Real Blues Harp, so to say. It's a small solid body electric harp with metal strings and magnetic pickups, of which each string can be bent both up and down at least a full note, using a special compression spring pitch bend lever.
Brenda is also an amateur singer and violin and cello player, and she puts her organisational
skills into practice at the International Jazz Harp Foundation and at Bonheur
Theatre Company in Rotterdam, NL.