'Doubt what you think you know.'
About the Teacher
Esther is the city carillonist of Enschede and campus carillonist at the University of Twente, where she also teaches carillon to students, alumni and staff. She is chair of Stichting De Twentse Beiaard and the Campus Beiaard Kring, and co-founder of Stichting Enschedese Carillons.
As a carillonist, Esther sees it as her responsibility to make the people of Enschede aware of the existence of the carillon, a special instrument that originated in the Low Countries in the Middle Ages. It is one of the oldest instruments in public spaces in the Netherlands.
As a ‘street musician’, Esther considers it important to perform a diverse repertoire. As a representative of intangible cultural heritage, she enjoys building connections with local residents through requests, collaborations with other musicians, educational projects, guided tours of the tower, and participation in international, national, regional and local events. She also explores the possibilities of audience engagement, public participation and participatory art.
She gave solo and quatre-mains concerts at the carillons of Almelo, Cuijk, Doetinchem, Enschede, Gdansk, Grimbergen, Hengelo, Leuven, Lochem, Nijmegen, Oldenzaal, Rhenen, Zutphen and Zwolle.
Esther performed carillon-plus concerts with cajon (Ezekiel French), elektric guitar (Ruben Verkerke) & vocals (Ronja Maltzahn and Ryan Song) en Odin de Jong voor de geluidstechniek; with flutist Floor Borghuis; with local brass bands, with violinist Maria Isolina Cozzani and electronics by Matteo Traverso, Lena C. and Ricardo Fortunato (composition by Ricardo Fortunato); with singer-songwriter Ronja Maltzahn; with singer-songwriter Sem Noa; with singer-songrwiter Lisa Carmen; with mezzo-soprano Ilse van Griensven; with troubadour Bert Kuiper; and with five local poets (Bram Geerlings, Jos Eertink, Moes Wagenaar, Vera Boertien en Wouter Munsterman) whose poems she accompanied with music.
She created the carillon series “Far from My Bed.” The first episode was a performance featuring Artenoush on oud, vocals, and tombak, accompanied by Kia Kalhor on guitar, with music composed by Kia Kalhor. The second episode featured a composition for carillon and electronics by Lena C., poetry and vocals by Regine Hilhorst accompanied by carillon, as well as a carillon solo composed by Pedro Coloma.
n 2025, Esther created the project “A Song for Every Enschede Resident” to celebrate Enschede’s 700th anniversary of receiving city rights. The project collects songs from Enschede’s international residents and organizes diverse concerts with and for them.
Esther has a master’s degree in Educational Science and a PhD in Social Sciences.
