Keistad Amersfoort - a kei in classical music?

When you think of Amersfoort, do you think of classical music? Um... A new initiative should change this. At the opening of the cultural season, Amersfoort presented Amersfoort Classical themselves with a fine ambition: to profile the Keistad as a classical music city.

A great initiative as far as I am concerned, because Amersfoort does indeed have a lot to offer in the field of classical music.

So there is Amerfortissimo, the annual festival for chamber music. An initiative by violinist Lonneke van Straalen that has since been taken over by the ladies of the Ragazze String Quartet. The NRC was very positive about it this spring.

Or take Monteverdi XL, an ambitious project by the Ensemble Le Nuove Musiche, which annually devotes attention to Monteverdi's vespers over a weekend.

In addition, the Keistad is home to Holland Opera, there are the Havik Concerts (a kind of mini Prinsengracht concert) and there is Music on Chairs: a beautiful project in which soprano Henriette Feith draws attention to unknown baroque repertoire with authentic instruments and top musicians.

Why compete?

Amersfoort has no shortage of atmospheric monumental buildings; the Veerensmederij, the St. Aegtenkapel and the Mannenzaal (built in 1531!) are all beautiful concert venues. In Amersfoort Classical, the venues, ensembles, festivals and companies in the field of classical music now join forces. Concerts are coordinated and there is a joint agenda. Why compete if you can also work together...?

Counteracting fragmentation is the first objective. With modest audience numbers for classical music, it is not practical to programme two classical concerts at the same time. And then lovers from their own place and region often prefer to visit Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam or The Hague. A fact that organisations and venues from many medium-sized cities will recognise. Amersfoort Classical will prove that you can go to Amersfoort for a lot of beautiful music.

And if the collaboration also leads to many more Dutch people associating Amersfoort with classical music, then Amersfoort Classical's ambition will have been achieved!

Off to Amersfoort!

The Keistad as a classical music city. It was music to the ears of Amersfoort alderman for culture Bertien Houwing. She was allowed to perform the opening act and expressed her great sympathy for the project. Earlier, she provided, according to the organisation, "a modest but welcome start-up contribution."

I have already bought my first ticket, for a performance of Winterreise, by Florian Just (baritone) and Jan Paul Grijpink (piano), on Sunday afternoon 2 October at the Veerensmederij.