The music for Eva Besnyö, The Choice Collection, was written by composer and bassist Tjitze Vogel.

Leo Erken approached him because Besnyö and Vogel share a fondness for the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók (1881-1945). Vogel uses unconventional metres and rhythms that find their origins in the music of the Balkans.
Vogel started studying music in Utrecht in 1976. There he met John Clayton, one of the world’s top bassists, and became his student. At the beginning of the 1980s, he began to attend the conservatory in The Hague.
Vogel received several composition assignments from the Creative Music Fund. His compositions and arrangements have been performed by the Frank Grasso Big Band, Herman Brood and the Robert Jan Vermeulen Trio. He has played with Earl Cross, Charlie Rouse, Charlie Green, Chet Baker, Toots Thielemans, Gijs Hendriks and Mathilde Santing, among others.
In 1999, Vogel and his quartet made South of No Border, which included musicians from India and Iraq. On this celebrated disc, jazz and modern classical music are combined with non-western scales and rhythms. According to Vogel, the quartet does not limit itself to one style: ‘We make music,’ he declares. For the occasion, the Vogel quartet was joined by pianist and accordionist Pieter Jan Cramer van den Boogaart.


Pieter Jan Cramer van den Boogaart.

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Joost Swinkels and Tjitze Vogel




Lothar Ohlmeier



Tjitze Vogel and Jasper le Clercq

Bass
Tjitze Vogel

Saxophone and
bass clarinet
Lothar Ohlmeier

Violin
Jasper le Clercq

Trombone
Joost Swinkels

Piano and accordion
Pieter Jan Cramer
van den Boogaart

Music production,
recording and mix
Frank van der Weij

Recording technician
Chris Weeda

Eva Besnyö
De Keurcollectie
The Choice Collection
Die Erste Wahl

A Film by
Leo Erken

Camera
Deen van der Zaken
and Leo Erken

Sound
Charles Kersten
and Roger Cremers

Editing
Marlene van der Kooi

Music
Tjitze Vogel

Producer
Valérie Schuit
Viewpoint Productions

This production was made possible with support from the city of Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Art Fund (AFK) and the Maria Austria Institute (MAI)