Biography
Maastrichts Salon Orkest
Effective period / Period of releases: 1982 - 2007
Members: André Rieu, Jo Huijts, Tanja Derwahl, Frank Steijns, Roland Lafosse, Marie-Hélène Bertholomé, Gemma Serpenti, Jean Sassen, Thieu Heyltjes, Frans Vermeulen, Henriëtte Janssen, Gosia Loboda, Cord Meyer
In 1978 André Rieu ran into his old fellow student Gemma Serpenti who asked him to join the small orchestra I Glissandi, that mainly played light classical music. In that very same year, Rieu transformed I Glissandi into a professional ensemble: the Maastrichts Salon Orkest.The orchestra ceased to exist in this form in 1987 when Rieu transformed it again into the bigger Johann Strauß Orchestra
In 2016 the Maastrichts Salon Orkest was revived by André Rieu with five members of the Johann Strauß Orchestra. Rieu himself is not part of the orchestra in its current form.