The members of the guitar duo DOS Amigos were Hans Oosterwal and Mark de Gooijer. We established the duo in the early nineties, it existed until august 2007.
I met Hans for the first time in the early nineties during a recording session for the regional radio station Radio Oost in Hengelo, Holland. I was there with my partner of the then Granados Duo to make a modest contribution to a radio broadcast. Hans was a former teacher at the Zwolle Conservatory. He had emigrated to Spain and lived there for about a year. Hans had just returned to Holland after an eventful period in his life. He tried to obtain a firm footing again in Hengelo for his guitar lessons and recitals.
After the Granados Duo dissolved, Hans and I started an attempt to form a duo. We took off enthusiastically and rehearsed once a week for many years.
The enthusiasm of the first period became a boost for our play. We studied existing material and made numerous arrangements to obtain new pieces. I had a little bit of experience with arranging music for flute and guitar from existing solo guitar pieces. This concept appeared effective for guitar duo as well. Hans got the taste of arranging too, particularly because music software made life quite easy. Consequently, a lot of our repertoire consisted of our own arrangements.
During the first years of the duo, we were quite keen on giving performances whenever possible. We played for the local radio in Enschede, we had two recitals in the concert series Concert bij Kaarslicht in the Oude Blasius church in the town of Delden. As a duo we appeared once in the concert series Zomaar een Zomeravond in the town of Hellendoorn. Besides, we made a lot of small performances like a Spanish Evening for the Rotary Club and a guest recital on the fair Houtrijk Nederland in the town of Coevorden (where many instrument builders appeared).
After ten years of playing together slowly some signs of wear showed up. Other and external musical interests, injuries and irregular working shifts prevented regular rehearsals. The motivation to hit the stage completely disappeared. The idea to record a CD failed after a few attempts, it could not replace the purposiveness of the concerts. Thus, slowly the elan faded away. Finally, this year the cooperation ended in conflict and DOS Amigos dissolved. 15 years of (musical) friendship were suddenly over.
What is left of this period is the music on the duo section of this site, clearly audible witnesses of 15 years of musical cooperation!