Paul Bass Photo
Taking in New Haven: Christine Larsen and Jane Van Valkenburg Tuesday on Broadway.
Jane Van Valkenburg pulled into New Haven to receive one of the greatest gifts a music teacher could ask for.
She received the gift at Woolsey Hall Monday night: The chance to watch Nico Tjoelker perform Franz Liszt’s “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam” as part of his final Yale School of Music master’s recital.
Van Valkenburg began teaching Tjoelker the organ when he was 10 years old. She spotted his gift when he was singing in the church choir she directed at First Presbyterian Church in Bryan, Texas.
“I discovered if I sat down and played something on the piano, even though he’d never had piano lessons, he could sit down and play the same thing,” Van Valkenburg said during a Tuesday conversation on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s LoveBabz Lovetalk” program. “We discovered he had perfect pitch. And he was interested in the organ. So we started him on the organ, and he never looked back.”
Van Valkenburg taught Tjoelker weekly for three years. After his family moved to Australia, she kept in touch and followed his career, through his acceptance at Yale’s world-competitive, tuition-free music school.
Van Valkenburg and her husband traveled to New Haven for the first time in January to attend Tjoelker’s wedding. She enlisted her friend Christine Larsen to take a plane to Delaware, where Van Valkenburg now lives, and accompany her by train to New Haven for Monday night’s concert.
Tuesday morning the pair was walking on Broadway. Van Valkenburg was on her way to purchase Yale T‑shirts for her grandchildren.
She was still buzzing about her former student’s performance the evening before on Woolsey’s majestic organ.
Tjoelker closed the recital with the half hour-long Liszt piece.
“When I was in school, years ago at the University of Michigan, the doctoral students would like to play this piece. It was like the hardest piece ever,” Van Valkenburg said.
How did Tjoelker do with it?
“Stunning. Amazing. He made it look so easy,” she reported.
“I can’t believe I started this kid. What a privilege.”
Van Valkenburg retired in 2014. She never had another student like Tjoelker, she said.
She continues to substitute for church organists. An adult in her area recently asked her for lessons; she sounds inclined to oblige.
On Tuesday morning, she and Larsen had a brunch planned with Tjoelker at Poppy’s Coffee and Kitchen on Whitney Avenue. To learn where his career takes him next.
First, though, they were walking on Broadway so Van Valkenburg could pick up some more gifts: Yale T‑shirts for her grandchildren.
Click on the video to watch the conversation with Jane Van Valkenburg on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz LoveTalk” program.
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