Merlijn Twaalfhoven on SPOT-Live: 'Outside the Randstad lies a huge source of inspiration'

'I have knocked on the door of the Congres Podiumkunsten several times in recent years on my own initiative, really from the idea that we can do much more as venues in the Netherlands. But yes, every time I was there, people got enthusiastic, but does it stick?'

Composer Merlijn Twaalfhoven is happy to now serve as 'curator' of SPOT Live, the new Congress of Performing Arts, can lay its egg.

'Especially if you work in the performing arts, you have a challenge to keep your head above water. You can't really afford ideals when you run a theatre. I noticed that people struggle with that. I'm glad I now have the opportunity to answer that question. Because it is feasible to take that extra step, to not only say: it should be done, but also: it can be done and we are going to do it.'

This is easier said than done. Where do you see opportunities?

'I believe that we as artists have had a very beautiful 20th century, in which the excellent, the special, the particular all those kinds of values were central. We enjoyed enormously very special people like Picasso, or John Cage. Those are then the great storytellers of the twentieth century. What we also came up with then was the idea of excellence. Let's be excellent, let's fly over the best conductor, or design a very expensive piano: let's work in every way to make that art experience excellent.'

Struggle

'I was at the conservatory myself and experienced it very closely. The struggle of my teachers who all said: yes, you could become a good composer, as long as you focus entirely on one style, or put everything else aside.'

Focus is good, right?

'I can really enjoy that excellence. I can also really enjoy it when I go to the National Ballet, but at the same time we are also missing something: the power to really engage with what is happening in front of you. The stories we could tell as artists and venues, which are about the city and the neighbourhood, what is going on in the world right now . Our stories can add a dimension of deeper knowledge. We are leaving that potential hugely untapped. That's because we are very insistent on that idea of excellence.'

Filter

'Things that go on tour are of course already hugely filtered. You have to find a client or apply for funding before you can make something. Projects are in production for two years before they are shown to the public. Another filter is, for example, that something takes an hour and a half. Or that something must cost 20 euros. There are lots of rules that frame the stage experience and filter what can or cannot be seen.'

But how are we going to change that?

'Why not make room for more spontaneous projects? I wouldn't mind at all if everything wasn't endlessly rehearsed and polished. Why don't I experience someone's doubts and dilemmas on stage? Especially in theatre, there is room for that. And why does a music ensemble or choir usually tour with a whole new programme? So much is prepared while you can also repeat pieces from before, improvise or play a new work twice, like a rock band, also playing golden oldies and also experimenting with new songs.'

'In short: remove some of that enormous pressure that makes every concert have to be completely finished and to perfection. It is the encounter that counts, not a perfect performance. '

How do you envisage that?

'Suppose you have an ensemble of ten men, there are a few of them, who can also play something very beautifully on their own. It's great to make a contrast like that, isn't it? Then we go on together again. Or an actor reads a passage from paper because it has only just been written. Or after a scene, space is made to ask the person next to you about their personal experience with the subject. .'

Telling

'I was at a concert of Daan Manneke. That's my old teacher. Who can talk so incredibly beautifully about things that inspire him. Only, now a whole concert has sounded with just his music. He didn't tell anything at all. As far as I was concerned, a piece had been played, he had told about the process and his sources of inspiration, and then the same piece sounded again. That might have been a much more interesting experience. The choir would have had to rehearse a bit less. It had come alive. That's how you can make a concert lighter but also more profound.'

'Surely it would also be so much nicer for the performers if only part of your work had to be that excellent, and that in addition you were allowed to experiment, that things were allowed to fail, that you were allowed to talk about what touches you and what inspires you. Give those performing artists space.'

But the public wants to know what they are buying.

'I experienced it myself. We had concerts some of which we had rehearsed very well, but where we also started singing things with the audience. Local high school students we had taught through workshops to sing as well, and there was a local choir in the audience. It was a concert where the substance and the common were very well mixed. It worked.'

Press

'In Amsterdam it failed. In all sorts of places around the country it was a very nice experience, but in Amsterdam all the singers who took part were worried that their friends in the audience, all professionals, would not be happy. So there was enormous pressure and the audience was also very testy. Nobody wanted to sing along. All those connoisseurs and professionals thought: yes, I'm going to sing along a bit! They were all waiting.'

The Culture Council has given the region a big role for future policy. Do you have any tips on that?

'I would like to go to a venue that really belongs to a place, that is a living room for a town or village. Most halls are interchangeable. It's just empty space. I believe that in the Netherlands we can connect more with local wealth, with the situations and people there. That way, a venue not only offers one-night performances, but also works towards a bigger story that extends over years. '

But all the artists prefer to live in Amsterdam. That's where all the work is.

'I was, years ago, a lecturer at Artez. There, I got to know the ambitions of the students attending the conservatoire in Zwolle, for instance. Then I noticed how little attention was paid to what that area of Zwolle has to offer. Everyone there initially has the idea that they just have to be very good to compete at national level. But what is going on in the region there, what the stories are of the people who live there, what is changing and how that fits in with major developments in the world: that is a great source of inspiration. '

Good to know

SPOT Live will take place on 15 May in Leeuwarden. Information.