Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
2 appearances
Danish folk singer who, with her husband, harmonised on American folk songs after being dared to audition.
On the island
Eight records
Somebody dared us to go and do an audition, and we did.
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:08Frederick, you are Dutch, are you not?
Yes, I'm Dutch. My wife, Nina, is the Danish one.
Presenter asks
0:25Did you have a musical education as a youngster?
Not very much. I was seeing one winter after I came back from America, and I only had one thing in my head, and that was to go back again. … But I only did it for the one winter and then I went to Paris instead and went on with my studies of languages.
Presenter asks
1:00Frederick, what about you?
Well, I have no musical training. I never studied. … I was a boy and I was interested in other things, girls I suppose. … I became a scholastic tramp, more or less. I went from university to university, trying to find my way in.
Presenter asks
1:36What were you studying for?
Oh, in the beginning it was architecture and then agriculture and then literature and I'm afraid that I'm not very good at any of these subjects.
Presenter asks
1:58And it was more or less by chance that you started singing together?
We worked out harmonies together for certain folk songs that we'd heard in America … Somebody dared us to go and do an audition, and we did. It was all very ridiculous because we did get the engagement.
Presenter asks
4:58Your artistic partnership became a domestic one. You were married in 1960, I believe. How many children do you have, Nina?
We have three.