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The Citizen, 1989-10-25, Page 19PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1989. Renee Stalenhoef puts her talent back to work Performing again The interest of Stratford pianist Paul Coates (left) has brought performing again. She will accompanying her. BY LISA BOONSTOPPEL When someone is blessed with true talent, it isn’t long before they are in demand to exhibit their art. Such is the case for Renee Stalen­ hoef of Auburn who was a famous opera singer for the Dutch National Opera and is now to perform again thanks to Paul Coates who invited her to perform in the Gordon Scott Community Concert Series in Strat­ ford. This is a new venture for the illustrious 43-year-old singer who has performed with the Kitchener Philharmonic Choir, the London Fanshawe Choir, The Blyth Sum­ mer Festival and the Saugeen Bach Choir since she emigrated to Canada in 1983. Although Mrs. Stalenhoef is a singer of classical repertoire, she has always specialized in opera and oratorials. So performing a vocal recital for the Gordon Scott Com­ munity Concert Series will be a new experience as she teams up with Mr. Coates, the artistic director of the series. It all began when Mr. Coates heard Mrs. Stalenhoef sing at the ceremony to dedicate a piano to Gordon Scott. He was very im­ pressed with her voice and wanted to team up with her to perform recitals. Intrigued by the idea, Mrs. Stalenhoef accepted and the pair have been practicing for their debut performance on November 5 at St. John’s United Church in Stratford. They are the first feature of the concert series which also includes Catherine Robertson, Fiona Wilk­ inson and the Kingsway College Choir. Mrs. Stalenhoef and Mr. Coates will be performing works by Rossini, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Wolf-Ferrarri and operatic arias. Mrs. Stalenhoef explained that the interpretation of these works will be far different in the recital than when doing an opera. “In opera, you really have to throw your voice out and you use gestures and movement to interpret the music. It is a great challenge to portray the story of the music by your expression because you don’t have the movement.’’ Yet acting through expression perform in concert at Stratford and movement was all a part of the training she received after her flair for the performing arts led her to Renee Stalenhoef back to serious November 5 with Mr. Coates her first concert debut in Amster­ dam and then onto the Academy of Music in Amsterdam to study with MILLS Elevator Division We are now ready to buy or store your CORN AND SOYBEAN CROPS • Fast Unloading • Accurate Probe System ’S'».. • Trucking Avaftible GRAIN ROASTING AVAILABLE Howson Ltd Flour & Feed Millers, Complete Farm Supplies, Grain Elevators 523-9624 »■ vtu HNTARin 523-4241 Elevator BLY In, UNIAnlU Main Office Elevators 1% miles east of Blyth on County Rd. 25 then Vz mile North the head voice teacher, Coby Riemersma. Mrs. Stalenhoef cre­ dits her father with getting her started in the field of classical music. “My father played piano well and confronted me with opera scores as soon as I could read and read music,” she said. “I found that singing was natural to me.” Then as she went through school, she found that she was really different from the other children because she was so in love with classical music. “I have always been an exception,” she says with a hearty laugh. “At the time that everybody was crazy about Elvis Presley, I was crazy about Maria Callas, the greatest opera singer,” she said. After the conservatory, Mrs. Stalenhoef who was then known as Renee VanHaarlen, was accepted with the Dutch National Opera which offered her a guaranteed contract for life. She sang for th opera for 12 years and reached the peak of her popularity by the time she was 30 years old. During this time she was also involved in other projects such as the Dutch Bach and Handel societies and the Holland and French Summer Festi­ vals. She has worked with such international conductors as Gary Bertini, Edo de Waart, Hans Vonk and Richard Bonynge. “I absolutely loved it,” said Mrs. Stalenhoef of her career which took her across Europe to such countries as Belgium, France, Germany and Finland. Her career also kept her very busy as she has performed in more than 800 distin­ guished performances. Although Mrs. Stalenhoef reach­ ed the peak of her popularity when she was 30, she says that a good classical singer is vocally on top when she is about 45. “A singer can, if they have a good technique, sing until they are 50 or 60,” she said and this is the reason that operatic singing is so different from many of the other performing arts because the possessor of the talent just can’t sustain their talent as in the case of a ballet dancer who’s career is usually over by the time they are 30 to 35 said Mrs. Stalenhoef. Operatic singers are better as they get older because they have experienced so many more of the experiences of life. “You can never perform if you don’t know the Continued on page 27 skidoo DATE: Thursday, Oct. 26 TIME: 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. New models! New features! New excitement! See the 1990 lineup of Ski-Doo snowmobiles at our open house. The changes we made this year will get noticed. 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