Dorine Schade bids farewell to the Residentie Orkest at the end of this month . And with that, after more than thirty years, she is symbolically hanging up the piccolo. "I have very fond memories of the orchestra: from Svetlanov to now," she said.

The heroic finale of Beethoven's Third Symphony conducted by guest conductor Antony Hermus will be Dorine's very last notes at the Concert Hall of Amare. But a black hole is certainly not looming. "Of course retiring is quite exciting. But I just let it come to me. Of course I'll keep playing the flute and teaching. But I also want to rediscover the piano, take sewing lessons and, above all, I plan to visit my family more often. Because of all the hard work of the past few years, I haven't gotten around to that enough."

Venlo
Dorine is the youngest in a family of no less than eleven children. Growing up in Venlo, Limburg, she came into contact with music at an early age. "In our large family, many brothers and sisters played the piano, violin, viola or cello. We also made a lot of music together which was a lot of fun. I played the piano from a very young age. But when my oldest sister moved back home for a while, she let me try her flute. And I actually liked that even more than piano, not only in terms of repertoire but also in terms of social environment because I could then play in an amateur orchestra."

The Hague
"When I was eighteen I went to the conservatory in Maastricht but I didn't stay there for long. At one point I heard a recording of a flute concerto by Haydn, by the Dutch flutist Frans Vester. I wrote him a letter asking if he would like to hear me play one day. I was over the moon when he let me! That's how I ended up at the Royal Conservatory here in The Hague. I had to get used to it, with all the traffic and people and the large flute class. But the study was fantastic. Vester dived into early music, was one of the first to play traverso and a pioneer in the field of performance practice: his credo 'try to play as it is meant to be played' I fully embraced. I am very glad I ever wrote that letter."

Residentie Orkest
And so Dorine returned to her college town of The Hague and joined the 1992 Residentie Orkest, which had just hired Yevgeny Svetlanov as chief conductor. "A great conductor, a friendly and exceptionally musical man. I remember one time we performed a symphony by Skrjabin. That was so incredibly beautiful, as if the orchestra rose above itself. His Mahler symphonies were also golden. I really look back on that with great pleasure. But still we play very well, I am also very happy with the woodwind group and the constant quality. There is good cooperation and you can hear that. I still enjoy playing the piccolo in the orchestra because you are like the icing on the cake, a kind of shiny layer. The Concert Hall projects the higher notes very well so I have to take care not to dominate too much, but I enjoy this beautiful hall enormously. I am very happy that I was still able to experience the move to the center of The Hague and play in this hall."

Teaching
In addition to her orchestra job, Dorine has always taught, at music schools, at home and at the conservatory. "It's nice to open people's ears, give them ideas and, above all, inspire them. But teaching has to come from both sides. Students must really want something with their instrument or it won't work," she says with a laugh. "But first I'm going to unpack my grand piano at home and study by myself and maybe even take lessons. My neighbors will be hearing a lot of Debussy because I love that too."
Jan Jaap Zwitser