NEFLAC Blog- Last Day         Sunday July 24

By Rosanna, Marlinda and Camilla

When we woke up on Sunday morning we all were looking forward to the concert at the Concertgebouw, but we were also a bit sad to leave Rhederoord and to begin our last day of this fantastic week. When we finished breakfast, there was already a big bus waiting for us in front of the building. 1.5 hours later we arrived in Amsterdam. We took our flutes and music, took a glance at the big main hall and went upstairs to the Recital Hall dressing rooms where it was very cosy- we shared the rooms backstage with 30 people, but the room is usually only for four people in chamber groups! Before we started the general rehearsal, we watched the movie which Suzanne had made to show the public what we had been doing during our past week. Besides playing and rehearsing the final details we also rehearsed our stage manners- walking on and off stage. Fitting on stage and being in the right position turned out to be very difficult! If you came to our concert, did you notice that we walked on stage in less than 15 seconds?! This was Emily’s strict rule! We had our lunch in the artist foyer downstairs, greeted friends and family.

At 14.15 we started the concert, as is traditional, with Jeroen’s arrangement of the Holberg Suite. We enjoyed a wonderful concert and we were all so happy to share the stage with the amazing Dominic Seldis! Emily and Dominic both played fantastic solos and it was inspiring to play with such amazing musicians. The newly commissioned bass flute and the new composition ‘The Rooster and the Chicken’ went down really well with the audience. We all loved performing in such an amazing venue with all our new friends that we have made this week and it was a great way to end the course.

Backstage again, we thanked Emily, Suzanne, Jeroen, Wieke, Andrew and Jeanette and gave them a game with a picture of every one of us so they won't forget this fantastic summer academy, just like us. Now it was time for a drink and saying goodbye... We laughed, hugged, took plenty of photos and then all went home. We all hope to be able to come back next year because we had such a great time!