This Sunday, June 4, Residentie Orkest will play alongside the very talented songwriter and musician Roos Meijer at PAARD. We spoke to her during rehearsals and asked, among other things, where does her passion for music come from?

"My passion for music, I think, is as old as I am. My first memories from my childhood are all linked to music. Certain songs turned on at home, dancing in front of the television where Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake was playing, and playing 'music rotation' with my little brother and father - where (without actually being able to play anything) we all improvised on a different instrument and then switched instruments. At six, I started playing the violin, and that instrument was traded in for the guitar at eleven. Writing music and lyrics also began very young; I found song lyrics from when I was about six years old. From vacations I can often also remember mostly composing in my head. Still, I never believed I was "good enough" to go to the conservatory or start a musical career. Until I turned eighteen and felt very strongly that this was my sacred fire and that I would do anything to achieve it."

What do you want to say and achieve with your music?
"With my music I always try to make connection with social themes. This is something I have also felt connected to since my childhood (I wrote my first socially critical lyrics when I was about nine years old), but which only really came to fruition in 2018. At the time, I had just returned from a trip to Greece where I had spent five months volunteering in refugee camps. When I was back home, I was walking around with all kinds of stories in my head, from the people I had met there. It felt so strange that everything back home had stayed the same while I had lived in a world with so much misery - a fairly small distance from the Netherlands. It bothered me that the stories of these people were not being told, in Holland and other European countries. As a result, I decided to turn these stories into music. That's how my EP Maktub was born. Since then, I have chosen to always let my music be inspired by other people; voices that, as far as I'm concerned, are not heard enough. For example, for my debut album Why Don't We Give It A Try? I went into conversation with changemakers and wrote songs in response to their words."

How do you experience the collaboration between you and the orchestra?
"It is an incredible honor to be able to work with the Residentie Orkest . General and artistic director Sven Arne Tepl has shown so much faith in me and my music by creating this program, and I will always be grateful to him for that. It was great to work with Gijs Kramers; his arrangements fit so nicely with my artistic vision. Then to be able to play those arrangements live with the musicians of the orchestra, yes, that is just wonderful. I also always like it when a crossover takes place; being on stage with both musicians from the orchestra and my own band really creates something new."

Is it exciting to perform with the Residentie Orkest in pop temple PAARD ?
"I always find it unfortunate that the word 'exciting' does not translate well into Dutch. Spannend sounds to me a bit more negative than 'exciting'; so I think that word would fit better. I think the exciting 's mainly in that it's a completely different way of working. As a pop musician, for example, I'm used to rehearsing for a big show a long time in advance, but with an orchestra the first rehearsal is a few days before the concert. The idea that I've never played the set a week in advance with the musicians feels very crazy to me, and that makes it more exciting than a "regular" show. But it's all nice excitement; I'm looking forward to June 4 incredibly and can't wait to get to share the music with the audience."

Both of your parents are musicians and play in Residentie Orkest. So you have a certain background that not every songwriter has; is that an advantage?
"It's always hard to say something like that, because I'm not used to anything else. But yeah, I definitely think it's an advantage, and that it shaped me. We didn't have to do anything with music, but that interest developed naturally in both me and my little brother. I always felt supported by my parents in that. Still, I think I only realize now how special it is what my parents do. In my teenage years I was not involved in that at all. Like most teenagers, I was mainly concerned with myself and my own musical interests, and at that time these were far removed from what my parents were playing. After puberty, though, that completely turned around. I am very proud of my parents and think what they do is very special. Actually they were both not scheduled for my concert on June 4, but they fought for it (luckily!). It feels very special to be on stage with them for this night."

Why is the album called Stories of Change?
"The album is a combination of music from my EP Maktub and album Why Don't We Give It A Try?; now in orchestral version. On my album there is a song called 'Stories of Change,' which I think sums up my concert and repertoire nicely. It's about complex feelings I can have when I think about the state of the world - it can sometimes overwhelm me a lot. But in the end, the song ends with a positive thought. When I think about all the "stories of change," I get hope again. That's about all the people who work for the world, society and/or people in some way. The people who inspire my music and who can get me out of a negative rut every time: after all, there is also a lot of beautiful things happening in the world and I like to keep reminding myself and my audience of that."