Hanneke van Proosdij to Receive ARS Distinguished Achievement Award
The ARS Board is pleased to announce that Hanneke van Proosdij is the 202
4 recipient of the ARS Distinguished Achievement Award (DAA).
The award is intended to honor a person or a performing group with the following record:
- Work with the recorder at a high level, over a long period of time, extending over more than one specific area of achievement
- High public profile
- Significant influence in North America
Van Proosdij played the recorder growing up in the Netherlands and discovered the joys of creating beautiful music with friends. She studied recorder, harpsichord and composition at the Royal Conservatory, The Hague, receiving solo and teaching diplomas.
In demand as a teacher for many years, she was director of the Amherst Festival’s Baroque Academy (1996- 2001) as well as co-director of the San Francisco Early Music Society’s Medieval/Renaissance summer workshop — with Louise Carslake (2002- 08), and with Rotem Gilbert (2010- 21). She also teaches recorder at the University of California-Berkeley and has been guest professor at Stanford University, Oberlin Conservatory, Indiana University, University of Wisconsin and University of Vermont. She is also an award-winning music director, conductor, keyboard player and composer.
With David Tayler, Van Proosdij founded the nonprofit
Voices of Music (VoM) in 2007. Its early music performing ensemble has released more than 420 online videos, many of concerts recorded live in the San Francisco (CA) Bay Area (including during the
Berkeley Festival, in which VoM is a significant participant), to an audience of over 120 million viewers.
VoM also has outreach programs for children, youth and adults. The VoM umbrella organization provides support in many ways that would not be possible for a standalone organization.
In 1997, with Carslake, Van Proosdij founded the
East Bay Junior Recorder Society, as well as the After-School Recorder program. These activities provide a unique opportunity for youth in the Bay Area to deepen their music education by playing recorder in an ensemble setting with peers.
In 2011, VoM brought the Barbary Coast Recorder Orchestra (
BCRO) into the fold. An adult amateur recorder orchestra in the Bay Area that was founded by recorder professional Frances Feldon, BCRO boasts many excellent players of sopranino to subcontra bass recorders and presents regular concerts.
The award will be presented during the Berkeley (CA) Festival in June at the ARS Great Recorder Relay, June 15, 2024, at 2:00pm. Read
here for more details on ARS's involvement at the
Berkeley Festival & Exhibition.
Voices of Music:
https://voicesofmusic.org;
www.youtube.com/@VoicesofMusic 
