My name is Marianne Bindel and I'm the 2nd violinist in DRSO.
My first acquaintance with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra - or as it was called back then, the Radio Symphony Orchestra - was as a child when I went to a rehearsal. My father would sometimes assist on piano or organ, and my mum would take my brother and me in to listen. I must have been 6-7 years old and I remember that we were sitting upstairs in the old radio house, on the top floor of the concert hall. I don't know what was playing, but I know that I was very scared when the timpani played. Fortunately, I've gotten over that, and today I can enjoy when the timpani comes on.
But that was also many years ago, today I'm 51 years old and will soon have been working in the 2nd violin group for 25 years.
I started playing the violin at the age of 10 at the Danish Suzuki Institute, where I took lessons until I entered the Copenhagen Conservatory. A large part of my musical upbringing was also at my school, where I went to choir. I went to Zahle's seminary school, but went to choir at the upper secondary school. I went to children's choir, mixed choir and girls' choir. There were weekly rehearsals, but also small rehearsals at almost every break time.
When I was in my 3rd year at the conservatory, I tried to compete with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and got a contract. So my 4th year was very intense with two main subject teachers and piles of practice on all the difficult orchestral repertoire. I was in the 1st violin group and wasn't very used to playing in an orchestra (well, I had been concertmaster of the Copenhagen Youth Symphony Orchestra and a member of the EU Youth Orchestra, but I had many months to learn the voice) so it was a bit of a shock that I had to learn so many notes in such a short time, and learn not to play during breaks. It's no fun to hear yourself playing during a break because you haven't realised that the conductor might be waiting a moment to strike down. But we've almost all experienced it and learnt to pay more attention.
After the conservatory, I studied for two years in Utrecht in the Netherlands, where I had a fantastic time studying in a very international environment. There were two Russian violinists teaching, and I listened to almost all of their lessons, because there were open classes. It was completely new to me and I learnt at least as much from listening to their lessons as when I was taught myself.
At the end of my time, I auditioned for DR again, it was the third time, and for me it was a stroke of luck, I won a position in the Symphony Orchestra, where I have been ever since.
I live in Valby with my husband and we have three teenagers. They all love football and play together, so I'm well up to date in that area and there's a lot of football talk at the dinner table. I'm more into gardening and doing a bit of yoga now and then. Over the years, I've also taken singing lessons, and I used to take flamenco dancing. It was very difficult and very exciting, with the different music.
I love my job, I enjoy the beautiful music, my very talented colleagues, and studying conductors, what they do well and badly, is an exciting study. How a conductor can energise the orchestra or take the energy out of the orchestra. It remains a mystery. The hardest part is when we in the orchestra are unsure of the conductor's beat. Then it starts to drift apart a bit and creates uncertainty.
With other conductors it doesn't feel difficult, just like we're listening and breathing together all 100 people, it's an amazing feeling when it happens.
Name: Jens Rademacher
Born in: Copenhagen, 1972
Voice1st tenor
I began my singing career as a choir boy in the Copenhagen Boys' Choir. After my voice went into transition, I continued singing in the Copenhagen Boys' Choir's male choir and various amateur choirs until I was hired as a concert singer in the Radio Choir, as it was called back then.
I think it was in 1998 that I started in DR KoncertKoret.
In addition to my employment with DRKK, I am employed by Vor Frue Kantori, work as an assistant in the Opera Choir, but have also worked as a freelance singer with NDR Chor in Hamburg, among others.
I have a great passion for Wagner's operas, but otherwise I would say I'm very broad when it comes to musical genres. Bach's Christmas Oratorio is definitely one of my favourites, but I equally enjoy listening to Ozzy Osbourne and Victor Cornelius.
The hardest thing I've ever sung: It has to be Henze's 9th Symphony. I clearly remember that the only thing you had to rely on was your tuning fork and your sense of where the notes were. The choir sang in one direction and the orchestra played in a completely different one. At the same time, it is perhaps one of the greatest musical experiences in the modern repertoire that I have experienced.