Music and ballet education in Valkenburg from 1947 to 1987

Not much research has been done about music and ballet education in Valkenburg. Especially about the early period from 1947 on, not much is known. We want to make a start here. Anyone who would also like to contribute is cordially invited to do so.
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From July 23 to September 4, 2023, an exhibition "Classical Ballet in Valkenburg" will take place at the Valkenburg Museum. This is a good opportunity to also take a closer look at the beginnings. The ballet teaching originated in the music school, which was founded in 1947.

[1] A Review (foreword to the 40th anniversary brochure, nov. 9th, 1987)
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Valkenburg Music School, one of the founders, Gerda Schunck-Cremers, wrote a foreword for the anniversary brochure. In it she describes the history of these 40 years.

[2] Ballet teaching at the music school of Valkenburg from 1947 to 1987
Below that, her daughter, the historian Dr. Christine W.M. Schunck, reports what she found in the private archives of Gerda Schunck-Cremers about the Valkenburg Music School and especially about the ballet education, under the title Ballet teaching at the music school of Valkenburg from 1947 to 1987
Between these lines, one of the former pupils, Gerda Tekstra-Schunck (Puppet Theater Piepmuis), comments here and there (colored in light yellow) on the history of those early years. She has no written records from that time, but her memory is quite good. Still, there is certainly much that is no longer known.

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Ballet teaching at the music school of Valkenburg from 1947 to 1987

by Dr. Christine W.M. Schunck.
Source: Private archive of her mother, Gerda Schunck-Cremers, co-founder of the Valkenburg Music School.

The school was founded in the fall of 1947 by a provisional committee (the two initiators Mrs. M.Hens-Jahn and Mrs. G.Schunck-Cremers, also M.Ogier as chairman, Jos.Vroemen as secretary and treasurer, H.J.Verstegen from Valkenburg and W.Curfs from Houthem as members).
The opening of the school took place on Sunday, November 9, at 11 a.m. in the patronage building next to the boys’ school on Plenkertstraat in Valkenburg, where classes were also held.

The subjects that the 20 pupils could choose in the beginning were individual lessons in piano or violin and group lessons in solfège (music theory, training of musical hearing) on Saturday afternoons. The tuition for instrumental lessons including music theory at that time was ƒ 72,- per year.
In the first year the provisional committee became the permanent board, supplemented by Vicar Hennekens. After that the chairman was replaced by H. Bielders.
It is unfortunate that there are gaps in my mother’s archives of the music school, due to her overseas travels (1948/49 and 1953/54 to Bonaire), as well as her childbirths and hospitalizations. Therefore, I do not know if a ballet teacher or a rhythmic gymnastics teacher was hired during the first 10 years. I searched very hard, but found nothing.

Every year there were public performances of the pupils, which my mother attended every year for 40 years, provided she was in the country.
One of the first public performances of the pupils took place in 1951 in the patronage building (piano, violin, accordion and solfège). It was a small pupil’s performance, but due to the many enrollments of pupils from the harmony orchestras of the surrounding communities, the school grew quickly.
On December 13, 1953, there was another pupil’s performance, this time not only with piano and violin, but also with recorder and ward. But still no ballet.

There was no talk of ballet then, but finally on February 24, 1957, at 11:30 a.m., a board meeting was held at Villa Alpha, with on the agenda, “Presentation of Mrs. van Heteren, ballet teacher”.
Pupil performances by preschoolers and older children now followed.
On April 27, 1958, a pupil’s performance of the Valkenburg Music School took place. The program included the following ballet pieces:

• “Blumenwalzer”, after the “Blumenlied” von Gustav Lange”
  Ballet preschoolers.
  Directed by Anneke Lammers
• “Menuet” from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, W.A. Mozart
  Preschoolers
  Directed by Helen van Heteren + Anneke Lammers.
• “Menuet”, L.v.Beethoven”
  Older children
  Directed by Helen van Heteren
• “Morgenblätter, Op. 279”, Johann Strauss
  Older children
  Directed by A. Lammers.
• “Coppélia”, Léo Delibes
  Older children.
  Directed by H. van Heteren
• “Morgenstimmung”, from Peer Gynt Suite Nr. 1, Edvard Grieg
  Older children
  Directed by A. Lammers, at the grand piano Y. Cozijnsen.

December 1958 there was a curriculum which showed that classes were no longer held in the patronage building, but in Villa Alpha on Plenkertstraat, as well as in the Meijs Hall (ballet), in the theater and in the hall of the St. Gerlach brass band in Houthem. The school outgrew its building and the town.
On Sunday, March 1, 1959, a pupil’s performance of the Valkenburg Music School took place at 7:30 pm in the Schouwburg. The program included 6 performances by groups of ballet pupils: Puppet Dance, Lembye Elf Dance, Delibes Dance surprise, Saint-Saens Dance macabre, Lincke Fireflies, Tchaikovsky Flower Waltz. Also piano, accordion, guitar, solo voice, solfège and violin.
A footnote at the end of the program states that “the ballet is performed by the Ballet School Mrs. Van Heteren under the direction of A. Lammers”.
On Wednesday, February 26, 1961, a pupil’s performance by the Valkenburg Music School was held at the Schouwburg. There were 15 auto performances, eight of which were ballet pieces.
Ballet teacher A. Lammers had also written the choreography; J. Soudant had designed the costumes and Y. Cozijnsen accompanied the dancers on the piano.
On Sunday, December 15, 1963, a pupil’s performance of the Valkenburg Music School took place at 7:30 p.m. in the Municipal Theater. Program items 1, 9, 10 and 15 were pupils of the ballet class of Mrs. I. Dubois. The names of the pieces or groups were not mentioned.
The move to the Steenstraat took place already in the 1960s. But when exactly? I guess in 1965. Until July 1964 I still had violin lessons in the Grote Straat, above the poultry shop of Becker-Pelt. This building was later demolished.
From 1973, the music school was named “Stichting Valkenburgse Muziekschool”, and the municipality began to take an active engagement in the school by setting up a committee under Article 61(1)(a) of the Municipal Act on Music Education. The aim was to protect the legal status of the staff and to establish a better financial connection with the surrounding municipalities that shared the use of the Valkenburg Music School.
In 1975, Gerda Schunck-Cremers was the secretary of the board, and in that year, for the first time, there was a clearly structured annual report 1975-1976. In total, 16 teachers were working at the music school (including the director A. J. Bosch and 2 ballet teachers: Mrs. J. de Backer-Exterkate from Schin op Geul and Mrs. M. van der Zander-Jonas from Maastricht).
Joke de Backer came in 1975 as a ballet teacher. She did this together with Mrs. M. van der Zander-Jonas. Apparently there were many pupils at that time.
In 1982 there were 105 ballet pupils in Valkenburg, 32 in Voerendaal, 113 in Wittem, 224 in Margraten, 21 in Nuth, others 41, a total of 1169. There were two teachers, Mrs. De Backer and Mrs. Van der Zander. They taught a total of 780 minutes for 1169 pupils. In that year the school had long since moved to Steenstraat 2 in Valkenburg and was officially called “Gemeentelijke Muziekschool Valkenburg aan de Geul” (Municipal Music School of Valkenburg upon Geul). Chairman of the board was mayor J. Schurgers and director of the school was J. Godschalk (Bosch had died after an illness).
On November 7, 1987, the 40th anniversary of the music school, which had been founded in 1947 entirely privately with a very small subsidy from the municipality, was celebrated. The co-initiator, Gerda Schunck-Cremers, was a member of the board until she moved to Schaesberg in 1982 (see the 1987 celebration brochure). When she died in 2005, the school had already been dissolved by the municipality. The municipality would have no more money for it.

Christine W.M. Schunck, daughter of Gerda.
May 12, 2023 Amsterdam.

Joke de Backer founded her own ballet school in 1989. She was always a good teacher and made beautiful ballets. She had asked me at that time to write a story for her in which 11 groups could dance. I then wrote a story about the environment called “A Healthy Spot?” Using puppetry and myself as the dancing sea eagle, I sort of strung this story together.
This ballet was also performed outside Valkenburg, for example in the theater of Kerkrade.