Post by Caitlin on Oct 29, 2006 16:39:49 GMT
This morning I was reading the local newspaper and I came across a wonderful article on Andre Rieu. He's got a concert in St. Paul tomorrow night and if I had known about it sooner I might have been able to go!
<3 Caite
Andre Rieu's mission: making classical music popular
BY MARY ANN GROSSMANN
Pioneer Press
"I want to bring classic music back where it belongs — in the street, for everybody," Andre Rieu says.
And that's what he has done. At 57, Rieu is classical music's equivalent of a rock star, with more than 20 million albums and CDs sold.
On Monday, the charming Dutchman brings his show to Xcel Energy Center for his first Minnesota appearance before an audience that's expected to number between 10,000 and 11,000.
With his violin tucked under his chin and a smile that can melt a woman in the 40th row, Rieu leads his Johann Strauss Orchestra. Many of his productions have been shown on U.S. public television stations, where he is the top performer during pledge weeks. A conductor and composer, Rieu was recognized as the No. 2 best-selling classical artist for 2005 by Billboard Magazine, and his spring 2006 U.S. tour sold out in every market, as well as landing him in the Top 10 of Pollstar Magazine's touring artists.
Rieu, who urges concertgoers to dance in the aisles, is known for springing surprises on audiences. Will he do it in St. Paul?
"Oh, yes, but I won't tell what," Rieu said in a phone conversation from his home in Maastricht, capital of the Dutch province of Limburg. The concert he played in the town's open-air Vrijthof Square was an anchor for American PBS stations' August pledge drive.
Rieu, who loves animals, was doing this interview while watching his boxer and his little poodle run around his garden.
"Maastricht is the most romantic city in Europe, and my home is the most romantic in Maastricht," he said. "It's a little castle, very old, built of soft stone, so it has to be constantly rebuilt. Our architect wanted modern. I'm always fighting with him; I want everything romantic. Now that everything is growing and flowering, slowly he's turning into a romantic."
ALL ABOUT ROMANCE
Romance is a hallmark of Rieu's concerts, from the music to the long, billowy dresses worn by the orchestra's female musicians.
"Music is the most beautiful instrument to bring love to the people, and love is the most important thing in life," he says. "But humor is important to love, too, and I want people to have fun at my concerts."
He recalled a concert in Iowa during which a woman in the audience was working on a big patchwork quilt. He stopped the show to banter with her.
"I like things like that to happen spontaneously in the audience so I can react," he said. "I thought she'd give me the quilt at the last moment, but she said it wasn't finished."
When Rieu is performing, he exudes warmth and confidence. So it's surprising to hear him admit he's shy.
"When I'm onstage, together with my orchestra, there is this distance between me and the public, and I am very glad of that. We open our hearts to the audience. But when I have to meet people one-on-one? I hate it. But I have to do it."
Does he have groupies?
"Yes, but they are nice groupies, 40 to 50 people who follow me around the world," he says modestly.
Are they mostly women?
"Well, yes," he replies with a laugh. "This is a joke to my wife, Marjorie. She knows I belong to her."
GROWING UP WITH MUSIC
Rieu began playing the violin when he was 5, although he admits he was so entranced by his blond teacher he forgot to listen to her instructions. His father was a professional conductor in Maastricht, and the Rieu children grew up exclusively with symphonies, chamber music and opera.
After studying in Amsterdam and Brussels, Rieu joined the Limburg Symphony Orchestra while launching his own group, the Maastricht Salon Orchestra. He organized the Johann Strauss Orchestra in 1987, the year he and Marjorie founded Andre Rieu Productions.
"I've known Marjorie since I was 11," Rieu says. "It would be impossible to do all this if she wasn't there. We have been married 32 years, and every day we have several times we think and say the same thing. It's very nice."
Rieu and his wife, who managed the business, experienced some hard times in the years when their two sons were little. But he kept working because he believed in his dream.
"I wanted ordinary people to love music again," says the man who can't stand snobs.
"When I was a member of an orchestra, I saw this was not the way I wanted to make music. All the colleagues around me were speaking of money, the union. It was too cold, too hot. Nobody was speaking about the music. The atmosphere was too elitist. Normally, in classical music, the conductor turns his back to the public. It's like, 'Don't bother me.' The atmosphere I wanted to create during concerts is friendship. I like the public in the hall. I want to look them in their faces and see their reactions."
RICH HERITAGE
In Marjorie's book, "Andre Rieu: My Music/My Life," Rieu explains that he owes his success partly to his Jewish father-in-law, who amassed a collection of more than 300 records in the 1920s. Although Marjorie's father had to go underground during World War II, when his wife was in the Dutch Resistance, he returned to Maastricht and continued adding 78s to a collection that eventually included everything from opera to American and English dance music, French chansons and golden oldies, sung by artists ranging "from Richard Tauber and Caruso to Maurice Chevalier, Josephine Baker and Marlene Dietrich."
This musical mix, Rieu says, was the kind of repertoire he wanted his orchestra to play.
After years of doing holiday concerts in Europe, Rieu got his big break in 1994, when his "From Holland With Love" album was released in the Netherlands. The album triggered a waltz wave because of the orchestra's rendition of a Shostakovich piece that Marjorie renamed "Second Waltz." A year later, Rieu's orchestra played "Second Waltz" at a televised international soccer match in Amsterdam, and the fans in the stands swayed and hummed along. The album soon went platinum in Germany.
In 1996, Rieu was dubbed the Modern Waltz King by the media and won the World Music Award in Monte Carlo. Since then, he has released 25 albums, including "Songs From My Heart," "The Flying Dutchman," "Life Is Beautiful" and "The Christmas I Love."
Rieu's filmed concerts, such as "Live From Tuscany" and "Live From Dublin," are some of Twin Cities Public Television's most popular pledge-week shows, according to David Preston, TPT director of membership and viewer services. TPT supporters who pledged $250 to $1,000 were given tickets to Rieu's Xcel concert as a "thank you" gift.
"Andre's had a long relationship with TPT and PBS," Preston said. "Like (singer) Andrea Bocelli, he's an example of a classy artist who was unheard of in the U.S. until public television found him. It took a while for people here to warm up to him, if we think of pledging as people 'warming up.' About eight years ago, he changed the format of his presentations from being like music videos to more concert-oriented, and by three or four years ago, he was really popular here."
'CHRISTMAS' IN OCTOBER
Rieu's newest television special, "Christmas Around the World," which will be released in CD and DVD formats Tuesday, will anchor PBS stations' December pledge drives.
Rieu says that "the beautiful thing about PBS" is having a direct contact with the public during pledges.
"In the early days, I went to studios with volunteers sitting by the phone while they showed my special," he recalls. "I'd start talking with the talent (show hosts), and suddenly all the phones were ringing. It's up to viewers whether they pay or not. I think that is a very nice thing we don't have in Europe."
These days, Andre and Marjorie Rieu spend six months on the road and six months at home in Maastricht. Their oldest son, Marc, is a painter, and Pierre is the company's production manager.
When Rieu started the Maastricht Salon Orchestra 30 years ago, he had 12 employees. Today, he has a payroll of 120, many of whom have been with him for 15 years.
"Some nights, when we have no concert, we go to a restaurant, and I see them all together and I think, 'I am paying all these people,' " he says in mock horror. "But we like to be onstage together so much that the sparkle jumps to the public. It's not theater, not something we play for money. It's real. We can look at each other and know what we want. When you know each other so well, making music together is better than sex."
<3 Caite
Andre Rieu's mission: making classical music popular
BY MARY ANN GROSSMANN
Pioneer Press
"I want to bring classic music back where it belongs — in the street, for everybody," Andre Rieu says.
And that's what he has done. At 57, Rieu is classical music's equivalent of a rock star, with more than 20 million albums and CDs sold.
On Monday, the charming Dutchman brings his show to Xcel Energy Center for his first Minnesota appearance before an audience that's expected to number between 10,000 and 11,000.
With his violin tucked under his chin and a smile that can melt a woman in the 40th row, Rieu leads his Johann Strauss Orchestra. Many of his productions have been shown on U.S. public television stations, where he is the top performer during pledge weeks. A conductor and composer, Rieu was recognized as the No. 2 best-selling classical artist for 2005 by Billboard Magazine, and his spring 2006 U.S. tour sold out in every market, as well as landing him in the Top 10 of Pollstar Magazine's touring artists.
Rieu, who urges concertgoers to dance in the aisles, is known for springing surprises on audiences. Will he do it in St. Paul?
"Oh, yes, but I won't tell what," Rieu said in a phone conversation from his home in Maastricht, capital of the Dutch province of Limburg. The concert he played in the town's open-air Vrijthof Square was an anchor for American PBS stations' August pledge drive.
Rieu, who loves animals, was doing this interview while watching his boxer and his little poodle run around his garden.
"Maastricht is the most romantic city in Europe, and my home is the most romantic in Maastricht," he said. "It's a little castle, very old, built of soft stone, so it has to be constantly rebuilt. Our architect wanted modern. I'm always fighting with him; I want everything romantic. Now that everything is growing and flowering, slowly he's turning into a romantic."
ALL ABOUT ROMANCE
Romance is a hallmark of Rieu's concerts, from the music to the long, billowy dresses worn by the orchestra's female musicians.
"Music is the most beautiful instrument to bring love to the people, and love is the most important thing in life," he says. "But humor is important to love, too, and I want people to have fun at my concerts."
He recalled a concert in Iowa during which a woman in the audience was working on a big patchwork quilt. He stopped the show to banter with her.
"I like things like that to happen spontaneously in the audience so I can react," he said. "I thought she'd give me the quilt at the last moment, but she said it wasn't finished."
When Rieu is performing, he exudes warmth and confidence. So it's surprising to hear him admit he's shy.
"When I'm onstage, together with my orchestra, there is this distance between me and the public, and I am very glad of that. We open our hearts to the audience. But when I have to meet people one-on-one? I hate it. But I have to do it."
Does he have groupies?
"Yes, but they are nice groupies, 40 to 50 people who follow me around the world," he says modestly.
Are they mostly women?
"Well, yes," he replies with a laugh. "This is a joke to my wife, Marjorie. She knows I belong to her."
GROWING UP WITH MUSIC
Rieu began playing the violin when he was 5, although he admits he was so entranced by his blond teacher he forgot to listen to her instructions. His father was a professional conductor in Maastricht, and the Rieu children grew up exclusively with symphonies, chamber music and opera.
After studying in Amsterdam and Brussels, Rieu joined the Limburg Symphony Orchestra while launching his own group, the Maastricht Salon Orchestra. He organized the Johann Strauss Orchestra in 1987, the year he and Marjorie founded Andre Rieu Productions.
"I've known Marjorie since I was 11," Rieu says. "It would be impossible to do all this if she wasn't there. We have been married 32 years, and every day we have several times we think and say the same thing. It's very nice."
Rieu and his wife, who managed the business, experienced some hard times in the years when their two sons were little. But he kept working because he believed in his dream.
"I wanted ordinary people to love music again," says the man who can't stand snobs.
"When I was a member of an orchestra, I saw this was not the way I wanted to make music. All the colleagues around me were speaking of money, the union. It was too cold, too hot. Nobody was speaking about the music. The atmosphere was too elitist. Normally, in classical music, the conductor turns his back to the public. It's like, 'Don't bother me.' The atmosphere I wanted to create during concerts is friendship. I like the public in the hall. I want to look them in their faces and see their reactions."
RICH HERITAGE
In Marjorie's book, "Andre Rieu: My Music/My Life," Rieu explains that he owes his success partly to his Jewish father-in-law, who amassed a collection of more than 300 records in the 1920s. Although Marjorie's father had to go underground during World War II, when his wife was in the Dutch Resistance, he returned to Maastricht and continued adding 78s to a collection that eventually included everything from opera to American and English dance music, French chansons and golden oldies, sung by artists ranging "from Richard Tauber and Caruso to Maurice Chevalier, Josephine Baker and Marlene Dietrich."
This musical mix, Rieu says, was the kind of repertoire he wanted his orchestra to play.
After years of doing holiday concerts in Europe, Rieu got his big break in 1994, when his "From Holland With Love" album was released in the Netherlands. The album triggered a waltz wave because of the orchestra's rendition of a Shostakovich piece that Marjorie renamed "Second Waltz." A year later, Rieu's orchestra played "Second Waltz" at a televised international soccer match in Amsterdam, and the fans in the stands swayed and hummed along. The album soon went platinum in Germany.
In 1996, Rieu was dubbed the Modern Waltz King by the media and won the World Music Award in Monte Carlo. Since then, he has released 25 albums, including "Songs From My Heart," "The Flying Dutchman," "Life Is Beautiful" and "The Christmas I Love."
Rieu's filmed concerts, such as "Live From Tuscany" and "Live From Dublin," are some of Twin Cities Public Television's most popular pledge-week shows, according to David Preston, TPT director of membership and viewer services. TPT supporters who pledged $250 to $1,000 were given tickets to Rieu's Xcel concert as a "thank you" gift.
"Andre's had a long relationship with TPT and PBS," Preston said. "Like (singer) Andrea Bocelli, he's an example of a classy artist who was unheard of in the U.S. until public television found him. It took a while for people here to warm up to him, if we think of pledging as people 'warming up.' About eight years ago, he changed the format of his presentations from being like music videos to more concert-oriented, and by three or four years ago, he was really popular here."
'CHRISTMAS' IN OCTOBER
Rieu's newest television special, "Christmas Around the World," which will be released in CD and DVD formats Tuesday, will anchor PBS stations' December pledge drives.
Rieu says that "the beautiful thing about PBS" is having a direct contact with the public during pledges.
"In the early days, I went to studios with volunteers sitting by the phone while they showed my special," he recalls. "I'd start talking with the talent (show hosts), and suddenly all the phones were ringing. It's up to viewers whether they pay or not. I think that is a very nice thing we don't have in Europe."
These days, Andre and Marjorie Rieu spend six months on the road and six months at home in Maastricht. Their oldest son, Marc, is a painter, and Pierre is the company's production manager.
When Rieu started the Maastricht Salon Orchestra 30 years ago, he had 12 employees. Today, he has a payroll of 120, many of whom have been with him for 15 years.
"Some nights, when we have no concert, we go to a restaurant, and I see them all together and I think, 'I am paying all these people,' " he says in mock horror. "But we like to be onstage together so much that the sparkle jumps to the public. It's not theater, not something we play for money. It's real. We can look at each other and know what we want. When you know each other so well, making music together is better than sex."
I've just taken photos of the pictures in the article for you to enjoy. 
