Esquin

Esquin was born on 31^st of December 1965. The first time she got involved with an organ was when she was seven years old and visited a colleague of her father. This man was blind and had a very simple Bontempi organ with just one keyboard. During this visit she spent the whole time trying to play this organ whilst her dad and colleague were chatting. By the end of the visit she already could play several songs. After this she tried to persuade her parents to buy her an own organ and after a few weeks they bought her a very simple one with just one keyboard. She played this organ about three years without any lessons because her mum was not convinced that Esquin was that serious about playing.

At the age of 11 this changed and her parents agreed that she could take lessons from the famous ‘Goldschmeding’ organ dealer in Amsterdam. At this time her parents bought her a real organ - a Yamaha B55N. With this organ Esquin’s dream started. After three years it was time to find another teacher. This was Mr. Welzenbach - a very classical teacher, 70 years old and very fond of J.S. Bach. This was not exactly the music she wanted to play but she really learned a lot from this man. After some years she stopped taking lessons and she just played for fun for family and friends.

A few years later she bought a Yamaha HS6 Electone and decided that it was time to start taking lessons again. Mr. Welzenbach was very pleased that she got back to him and this time they agreed that Esquin could play some modern pieces as well. After she moved from Amsterdam to Almere Esquin had to find another teacher, but at that time she was married and had a son and so other things took priority.

In 1996 she was able to buy her ‘dream organ’, the Yamaha EL90. At this time she knew that there was a very good teacher in Almere, Mr. René van den Bergh and started to take lessons from him. In 1997 her friend Yvonne Sprenger convinced her to play for the first time in public. After this spot Yvonne and Esquin formed the Dutch duo M2 and played for several Organ and Keyboard Societies in the Netherlands. In 2002 she traded in her EL90 and bought an EL900 in the UK. She still uses this instrument. In 2003 the Dutch duo M2 produced their first CD ‘The Way We Are’ and in 2004 they played during the Ladies night at the Caister Autumn Festival in the UK.

At this moment Esquin is still having lessons from her teacher Mr. René van den Bergh who is very proud of her. She is playing more solo concerts because Yvonne is very busy with her own company. April 22th, 2008, her first solo CD 'Pirates' is released and she is looking forward to more solo concerts in the Netherlands and the UK.

‘I would love to say thank you to all my friends in the Netherlands, especially to my husband, Yvonne Sprenger and René van den Bergh and also to my dear friends in the UK, especially; John and Ann Jackaman, Richard Bower, Ian Griffin, Daniel Watt, Grant and Sue Neal, David Wong and Chris Stanbury, my German friend Johannes Freitag and my friends from the United States Lee Anderson and Stan Koyama for their support.’