The classical accordion duo TOEAC consists of Renée Bekkers (1985) and Pieternel Berkers (1986). They studied at Fontys Academy of Music (Netherlands) where they both succeeded their Bachelor cum laude and at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen with Geir Draugsvoll and James Crabb where they both succeeded Masters cum laude. At the moment they follow the soloist-class at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with Geir Draugsvoll.
TOEAC has been awarded several prizes: ‘Dutch Accordion-Competition’, ‘Prinses Christina-Concours’ (The Netherlands), ‘Grand-Prix International (France), ‘Premio Internazionale di Fisarmonica (Italy)’, ‘Grachtenfestival Conservatorium-Concours’ (The Netherlands), Vriendenkrans-concours/Het Debuut (The Netherlands) and Legatkonkurrencen (Denmark).
TOEAC played for several television programmes and radio programmes, national and international. Pieternel and Renée are also co-operating with other artists as conductors, writers, visual artists, live-electronic composers, documentarians, dancers and actors as o.a. Michael Schonwandt, Micha Hamel, Ernst van Tiel, Ed Spanjaard, Kader Abdollah, Regina van Berkel en duo Strijbos van Rijswijk. They worked with orchestras such as ‘het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest’, ‘Orkest de Volharding’, ‘het Schönberg ensemble’, ‘het Nieuw Ensemble’, ‘het Malando Orkest’, ‘Metropole Orkest’ and ‘het Rotterdams Kamerorkest’.
New compositions were written for them by G. Beljon, B.B. Skjelbred, C. Meijering, N. Huijbregts, B. de Murashkin, B. Richter, B. Skjelbred, E. Caine en N. Whiteman. Dobbelconcerto’s were written by C. Farmakis and N. Ioakeim.
TOEAC plays concerts in Indonesië, South-Africa, China, Canada, England, Denmark, Germany, France, Belgium, Czech Republic, Turkey and The Netherlands. Pieternel and Renée played at several famous festivals such as Cheltenham Festival, Festival de Saintes, Festival van Vlaanderen, Grachtenfestival Amsterdam, Rheingau Festival, Festival Aardklop, Kultur im Kreis, etc.
The first CD ‘NORDIC MUSIC’ appeared in 2012, recently the CD ‘TOEAC pictures…’ was released.
9 October -Hugo Lambrecht Music Centre in Parow, Cape. 1900.
10 October -Odeion. University of the Free State. 1930
11 October -Time ‘n Space Theatre Henley-on-Klip 1800
12 October – Linder Auditorium Parktown Johannesburg 2000
13 October -UNISA 1600
