Some years ago I received an email from a young Belgian woman. Her name is Frédérique.
She wanted to order CD 1 and she expressed her dear wish to be able to compose like me.
She also told me that every time she played Solitude (from my first album) during her pregnancy her baby settled down, but started kicking as soon as she stopped playing. Of course I was touched by this little story and soon an intensive e-mail exchange started.

Throughout this correspondence it became clear who she was: a full-time working mother of a two-year-old boy,Robin and partner of Jean Pierre.

Like in so many young families there was always lack of time, especially for the things she so dearly wanted to realize: improving her piano playing and trying to do some composing. It's crystal clear that some stress now and then could hardly be avoided.

Meanwhile I learned about the story of her youth which had not been very joyful: she lost her mother when she was only a baby. And this loss still affects her a great deal because she never had the chance to get to know her mother.

This sad story put an idea into my mind:
I proposed for us to compose together a piece built on a theme made with the letters of her mother's names (as in my volumes 8 and 10, “What's in a name”).
She gave me the names and now I was able to create a theme with the usable letters.
It seemed to score a bull's eye.

And that's how we started composing 'on line'... Because we used the same music-notation program we could exchange all our attempts by email. Next I wrote some options and let her choose what kind of measure she wanted.

Usable letters/key notes from all the names of Anne Françoise: a-e-f-a-c-e-c-e

By way of surprise I also integrated a part of Frédériques own composition in this piece.
As, on my request, she had already sent me two of her own little compositions.

And thus “Berceuse pour maman” (1) was created. A joint piece of mother Anne Françoise and daughter Frédérique

In the summer of 2007 Robin turned three and just as I had done for my own grandchildren I wrote for him, using the letters of all his names, Valse pour Robin (2)

After we had met several times the bond between Frédérique and me became so close that she invited me to be her “wedding mother” at her wedding with Jean Pierre in summer 2008.

Towards the end of 2007 our daughter Maaike moved to England to her new future and although we happily waved her goodbye, still a certain melancholy came over me which immediately was translated into music....
I tried to make a nice composition but failed initially until I created a more cheerful theme when thinking of my foster daughter Frédérique.

Meanwhile daughter Maaike was doing quite well in her new home town and that's why the opening minor theme returns in a bright major on the last page.

During the period that the Jaros Suite was conceived another sad event took place: a dear friend fell incurable ill.

It was shortly before her death that this quite personal composition was finished. When I asked her 'which composers do you like most' she answered 'Schubert and Brahms'. And that's why Schubert on a certain moment is clearly present in this composition.
Again I choose the letter construction.