Andre Rieu

Violinist

1949-10-01

Dutch violinist and conductor best known for founding and leading the Johann Strauss Orchestra. He became an international concert figure through large-scale touring productions centered on waltz and light-classical repertoire.

Quotes by Andre Rieu

I was so busy with my studies that I didn't have a musical idol as a teenager. Later, around my 20s, I suddenly discovered the Beatles and the Rolling Stones but I guess my musical idol has always been Strauss.
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I was the black sheep of the family, and my mother never really understood me.
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I have 120 people in my payroll without any government giving me any money. We live off the tickets and the records I sell. That is very unusual.
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I first picked up a violin aged five - I just assumed everyone played.
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The waltz can be sad and at the same time uplifting. You have to see life from both sides, and the waltz encapsulates that. If you're in my audience you give yourself to me and the waltz will grab you.
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The waltz is a very important part of my life. It's a very important way for me to express my positiveness, bringing humor to the world.
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Where would I be without Johann Strauss's beautiful 'Blue Danube?' Without this piece of music I wouldn't be the man I am today. It's a tune that brings out the emotion in everyone and makes them want to waltz.
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It is a real piece of art if you can make a waltz sound like it is the easiest piece of music to play, because it's really not.
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It is my personality alone that has brought back the waltz and made it a global craze.
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When my twin grandchildren, Linda and Lyeke, were born two years ago, it changed me. I felt it was the essence of what life is about, and I cried all day. When my son Pierre, their father, was born I didn't cry like that.
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