Violinist Justyna Briefjes: you've probably seen her many times, sitting prominently next to the Principal of second violins. That is now a thing of the past, because recently Justyna herself became Principal. An excellent opportunity to get to know her better and find out more about what exactly a Principal does. 

For years, Justyna Associate Principal was with the second violins. When a captain's position recently became vacant, she did hesitate for a while whether to audition. "I was actually quite happy with my role as an alternate. A few colleagues said I should try it, but it had been sixteen years since I auditioned. Besides, auditioning in front of your own colleagues is nerve-wracking! Anyway, I did it, and apparently it went well enough! 

Duties
The duties of a Principal are numerous: synchronizing bowings with other string groups, conferring with the conductor and the other leaders, ensuring that the conductor's instructions are carried out correctly, leading group rehearsals, providing a listening ear to group members... 'I still have some getting used to my new role. Before I had a more serving function, now it is I who must make the decisions: adjust a line, make a proposal to other leaders, communicate with my group... That requires taking initiative, waiting is not one of them.' 

You were born in Poland. What kind of story is behind that?
'In the late 1970s, my father, who was Dutch, went on vacation to Poland with a friend one summer. There he met a young lady, and it was love at first sight. After that summer, my father had to return to Holland; only a year later was he able to visit her again. My mother then soon became pregnant, and in Catholic Poland that led to a very early marriage. The fact that a young woman who grew up in the Eastern Bloc married a Westerner eight years older caused quite a stir there; their marriage drew a lot of attention.

'We lived in Poland for a few years. My sister was born there, and our parents tried to make a living there. But my father, who had studied at the Nursery School and the Rietveld Academy, had difficulty finding work there. Nor did my mother, trained as an economist, find a job there. At the beginning of the 1980s, when Poland experienced a crisis, they decided to try their luck in the Netherlands. And there everything came together.

Why the violin?
"My mother played the violin as a child, but later stopped. In Holland, she brought it out again, and started playing in an amateur orchestra in Castricum, which we lived near at the time. That was when I first heard violin sounds. I enjoyed playing the piano in the living room, but the violin fascinated me, in the sense that it seemed impossible for me to play it. When I was allowed to choose which instrument I wanted lessons on, I chose the challenge of the violin. My teacher was the string repeater of my mother's little orchestra, Sjanneke Laghuwitz. With her I stayed for nine years, until I went to the conservatory in The Hague to study with Peter Brunt.'

The Hague String Trio
In 2004, just after completing her studies, Justyna joined the ranks of the Residentie Orkest after a successful audition. In 2006, with viola player Julia Dinerstein and cellist Miriam Kirby, she formed The Hague String Trio, which in the following years grew into one of the leading string trios in the Netherlands. 'It clicked immediately between us, and we have been in existence for fifteen years now! We have always brought a lot of unknown repertoire to the stage. Three years ago we made a CD with music by Jewish composers who were persecuted and often murdered during World War II. Recently, we presented our second CD, Celebrating Women!, with previously unrecorded works by female composers.' 

How do you experience the new venue in Amare?
'For six years playing in the Zuiderstrandtheater was certainly not a punishment, especially because the audience loved coming there, but the acoustics were not nice for the musicians. Amare is a totally different story. At first I imagined myself abroad; such an opulent hall in such a beautiful building ... but it is really in our The Hague. The orchestra is happy there, our audience is happy, and then I think: wow!, everything falls back into place.' 

Ronald Touw