THE MOST BEAUTIFUL EVENING OF FILM MUSIC

It was the sunniest day we have had so far, in the evening the red carpet was rolled out, elegantly dressed guests trickled in and the best conductor in the world was ready in the wings; The Evening of Film Music was yesterday and it was a night to never forget. A year ago, the idea arose to interest young people in classical music and introduce them to the Concertgebouw and orchestra. To achieve this, Holland Symfonia was asked, under the direction of Charles Floyd, to play classical film music. You may know Holland Symfonia from the TV program Maestro and Charles Floyd, he is the man who conducted at Barack Obama's inauguration ball, among other events.

Each piece was introduced by a guest speaker from the entertainment world and the whole evening was hosted by Ruben Nicolai. Heavyweights, indeed. There were also some in the audience. Arie Boomsma, Jan Jaap van der Wal, Jan and Monique des Bouvrie, Wende Snijders, Jort Kelder and Lauren Verster, Loes Luca and a radiant and pregnant Lieke van Lexmond who brought her sister Jetteke along. My personal favorite was probably Alexander Klöpping, who charmingly and humorously introduced his piece. It was the soundtrack of Pirates of the Caribbean and that is quite, eh, bombastic, as he himself said. And indeed, the orchestra began to play and there came a sound out, really through marrow and bone. In a good way, of course. Furthermore, we heard music from Amélie, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, The Godfather – just to name a few.

Afterwards, we all went to the equally beautiful Spiegelzaal for a glass of Moët et Chandon and a bitterbal, my favorite combination. We were with the entire Amayzine team and our brothers from the Pilot Studio and it felt a bit like the best company outing ever. When it was done in the Spiegelzaal, we jumped on our bikes to De Kring at Leidseplein for an afterparty with musical accompaniment not by Charles Floyd, but by Erik de Zwart. A night full of endless dancing to old hits and great 90s classics followed, in my case first on my lovely 12 cm heels but at some point just in my tights. I saw Dirk Zeelenberg sitting at the bar deep into the night and I think René Mioch was also having a great time. Jet bounced around the whole club and interns Issey and Janine were impossible to get off the dance floor. When Amayzine goes out, we do it right away. You immediately have the reason why we are a bit quiet and jittery here at the office today but oh well, who cares. We are already looking forward to next year. Cheers!