Joke Kegel

 “I feel blessed and humble with ears, eyes, and all my other senses. I hope to observe the world and serve humanity, making it a better place. As a musician, poet, and artist, I inherited these talents from my parents and ancestors, allowing me to enrich people with contemporary art forms.“

Joke Kegel, or Jo was born September the 10th in 1960 in Amsterdam, studied piano from six years old with Nora Rijkers, (born 1929) and started from her 15th seriously as an artist in painting, in the class of the artist Rinus Duin (1918-1996) ) drawing and photographing portrets and abstract works. 

After studying at different Art-Academies and the Actorsstudio in Amsterdam, playing in different theatre-productions, with directors as Nouchka van Brakel, Maureen Birney and George Isherwood, she studied for 10 years with the Musicologist Edgard Vreuls, didactics, piano, history of music and did all her States Exames in the Netherlands. From 2001-2007 she studied composition at the department ‘Contemporay Music through Non Western Techniques CMtNWT’ at the Conservatory in Amsterdam. She sang soprano for years in the Choir of New Music, with the conductor Huub Kerstens. For 15 years Jo was conductor of the Eilanden Choir, based in Amsterdam and guest conductor of many other choirs. She sang  soprano in the Anglican choir with the conductor Martin Bleek for one year in 2023/2024.

“I enjoy teaching children as well as adults, beginners and advanced students” Jo is qualified to teach lessons for piano, composition, analysis and music history. She loves to teach singing as well as giving a course in rhythm. She teaches for more then 20 years in her studio in Amsterdam and nowadays also in and around Baambrugge, at her pace as well as at the homes of her pupils. Check her Studio Jokegel here above to contact her for further information and the payment.

Between 1990-1995 she worked as guest lecturer at the Leidse Hoge School  in cooperation with Dick Bloem, lecturer at the department of healthcare Conflict Management training. Within that period she also was a permanent employee of the Boddaert Centre in Amsterdam and set up childcare for mothers who wanted to master the Dutch language. 

She writes contemporary compositions for solos, duos, large and small ensembles. Instrumental and multimedia events, as well as theater and film. Over the years she has organized many concerts with her own compositions and works by other composers.  Some of her works are published by Donemus.  More details : Joke Kegel’s CV Link

She curated: 
*‘Alternative Faces’. Multi media production.
*‘Incorporea’, featuring dance, live music, visual arts and video.
*’Bare feet, Breath and bare Hands’ for live bass clarinet solo and video.
*‘Van een leien dak’, with the recording ensemble work:
*’Who is counting on a pure symmetric triad within a perfect fourth?’ 2004, for Flute, Sopranosaxophone, Trumpet, Bass-clarinet, Bassoon, Vibraphone and Timpani, all tuned in the 24 tone-system and a slide show with visual art made by Gerbrig Seidel.

In 2023 Jo was interviewed as one of the first year’s pupils of the high school for the documentary The Kids of the OSB to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Bijlmermeer Open School Community, but also to convey the great ideas of the founders to the new generation. The documentary will be shown internally at the OSB School as well as at future Festivals.

Jo loves to work with dancers and participate also in the Body Body Body classes of Katie Duck. She will be part of The Sunday Sessions, created in 2014 by Katie Duck and Amsterdam based artists. They are aimed for performance artists, singers, dancers, actors and musicians who have interest to do multidisciplinary compositions for performances. Sunday sessions are no workshops or jams. It is a place for artist to gather, discuss and practice real time performances with the aim to perform in confrontation with the public. It is a platform created to celebrate and support experimental, multidisciplinary performance art practices. 

To enrich other people’s lives, she massage her friends and colleagues with back problems or headaches, to lower blood pressure and reduce stress, for a reasonable fee of fifty euros per hour. “They say I’m good, because the pain is gone. I notice that I use all my experiences and make a combination of Shiatsu, which I learned from my mother;  Alexander Technique; Physiotherapy; Yoga and Qigong. I love to listen to Eckhart Tolle, Vimal of Marari Yoga, buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn and Qigong teacher buddhist brother Insight”