Special action Nieuwe Noten Amsterdam: 5-year anniversary

Nieuwe Noten Amsterdam celebrates its fifth anniversary this season! To celebrate, we have a special offer: students and professional musicians and composers can attend any Nieuwe Noten concert for just €10.

Every month at Plein Theater, you get the unique chance to experience new music in an intimate setting. At our venue, Nieuwe Noten Amsterdam offers a stage for contemporary chamber music. With adventurous and small-scale performances, new compositions and leading musicians, works and ideas by well-known ensembles are presented. "Nieuwe Noten Amsterdam at Plein Theater offers a springboard for talented musicians and composers. As a surprising stage, it gives established names the chance to present new work in an intimate setting," said curators Aspasia Nasopoulou (composer) and Fie Schouten (bass clarinetist). 

This season we have three more special concerts on the agenda: 

Sunday 20 October 15:00 

New Notes Amsterdam: Percussion, Cello and Bass clarinet 

Rie Watanebe (percussion), Lucija Gregov (cello), Tobias Klein (bass clarinet) 

Percussionist Rie Watanabe (Japan/Cologne) plays compositions by Franco Donatoni, Nicolaus A. Huber and Mark Applebaum, as well as improvised music with cellist Lucija Gregov and bass clarinettist Tobias Klein. Watanabe works with various new music ensembles and composers such as Helmut Lachenmann, Nicolaus A.Huber, Gerhard Stäbler, Enno Poppe, Roman Pfeifer, Oxana Omelchuk, Yasutaki Inamori and Niklas Seidl. She is also regularly active in improvised music, including with Matthias Muche's ensemble Bonecrusher. In 2021, she played in the Bass Clarinet Festival with Ches Smith, Oguz Büyükberber and Tobias Klein. 

Sunday 3 November 15:00 

New Notes Amsterdam at the Orgelpark 

Nicolas Hodges (piano), Guus Janssen (organ) 

Nieuwe Noten Amsterdam collaborates with the Orgelpark! In this first edition, featuring Nicolas Hodges on the piano with music by Evan Johnson and Morton Feldman, and Guus Janssen on organ(s). Hodges was born in London and currently lives in Germany, where he teaches at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart. He studied piano with Robert Bottone at Winchester College and has worked closely with composers such as John Adams, Helmut Lachenmann and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Several composers have dedicated works to him, including Elliott Carter ('Dialogues for Piano and Orchestra'). Janssen studied piano and composition at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. As a pianist and harpsichordist, he performed in various line-ups, with musicians such as John Zorn and Gidon Kremer. Since the early 1980s, he has led his own ensembles, from (piano) trio to 11-tet and (opera) orchestra. As a soloist, he can mostly be heard in his own compositions and as an improviser at various international festivals. Guus Janssen's compositions range from piano music and chamber music to symphonic works and operas. In 2012, Guus Janssen received the prestigious Johan Wagenaar Prize for his entire oeuvre. 

Sunday 8 December 15:00 

New Notes Amsterdam: The Dream of the Siren 

Ensemble Echolab 

The Dream of the Siren is a concert programme for three acapella voices by Ensemble Echolab (Vanessa Guinadi, Kristia Michael and Jasperina Verheij), exploring the creativity of the future through the archetype of 'the siren'. The siren is the ultimate figure of seduction. This concert programme brings together existing new music immersed in the world of ancient sirens, with newly commissioned AI-supported works by composers such as Livia Malossi and Niko Schroeder. 

Music Building on New Notes Amsterdam: 

"Away from the big stages, sometimes the most beautiful developments take place, which help define the music of the future. Bass clarinetist Fie Schouten and composer Aspasia Nasopoulou's Nieuwe Noten Amsterdam series at the Plein Theatre brings the opportunity to reflect on the present time. Each concert has a different focus. Thus, Nieuwe Noten Amsterdam provides a venue for contemporary chamber music and the series is a laboratory for the sound of today." 

What does Nieuwe Noten Amsterdam offer & who are the curators 

The series provides an opportunity to reflect on the present time, forming a laboratory for today's sound. The curators and artistic 
leaders of Nieuwe Noten Amsterdam are composer Aspasia Nasopoulou and bass clarinettist Fie Schouten. Both received (2019, 2021 respectively) the New Geneco Fair Practice Composition Commission Award.