We have been informed by various friends of the death in an Amsterdam hospital of Peter Sokole, former assistant principal viola of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and director of the chamber music network, Musica Reale.
Peter, who died on Saturday, was 78. The cause was Covid-19.
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Peter and I shared an apartment when we were students at Juilliard. He was gregarious, opinionated, talented and always looked like he was 18 years old. This is indeed sad news.
I went to camp with Peter in 1958-59. We became good friends then. I am sorry to just find out that he has passed away. A talented man!
This tragic death may have been avoidable, where it not for the Dutch Government’s horrific handling of the pandemic. It has been an open secret for several months that the government has been pursuing a herd-immunity strategy – even bragging that Holland has had more cases, which they say will require the Dutch government to provide less covid vaccines.
I work in the entertainment sector, but Holland’s recent string of “trial events” will lead to nothing but increased hospitalisation in a country where the hospitals are already nearing capacity. The only thing that saved Dutch hospitals from being overrun in the first two waves was Germany’s willingness to take hundreds of Dutch Covid patients.
Rutte has failed the arts, has failed the country’s medical staff, and he is failing the Dutch people.
All true.
But lo and behold: he is still popular and will probably win the next election.
Another problem is the skimming of the medical sector over the last 10 years. Something Rutte’s party is entirely responsible for. And now, it appears that the sector cannot cope with a pandemic.
Also the government has completely failed to provide correct scientific information to the population, and have ignored the few people who have already offered correct information since April last year.