King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima present at opening of Holland Festival

His Majesty the King and Her Majesty Queen Máxima will attend the opening performance of the 79th edition of the Holland Festival on Wednesday night 3 June in Amsterdam.

Royal Theatre Carré will feature two works by composer Huang Ruo: City of Floating Sounds and Shattered Steps. From various starting points scattered around the city, visitors walk to the theatre as part of the performance with a specially developed app. Through this app, one instrumental part from Huang Ruo's orchestral work sounds on everyone's phone. The walkers thus form a large, moving orchestra together. What you hear is constantly changing and so the city itself becomes the stage. In Carré, this experience takes on a new form: the music unfolds live, performed by Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen.

About City of Floating Sounds composer Huang Ruo

Huang Ruo (b. 1976, China) is a Chinese-born composer, pianist and singer, currently based in the United States. His work unites Eastern and Western traditions in orchestral, chamber music, opera and multimedia formats, including architectural installations, applying a compositional technique he himself calls “Dimensionalism”.

True listening, empathy and changing perspectives in 79th Holland Festival

Since 2019, the festival has worked with an associate artist who brings own and new work and contributes to deepening and broadening the programme. For the Holland Festival 2026, it is composer and musician Hildur Guðnadóttir (Reykjavik,1982), one of today's leading and most versatile creators of film music, experimental pop and contemporary music.

Central to her work are empathy, listening and transformation: according to Guðnadóttir, art is pre-eminently a means of creating shared, connecting experiences. ‘My dream scenario for the festival - and actually for any performance - is simple,’ says Guðnadóttir. ‘I want to be in a space where people are really present and listening deeply. Perhaps the slogan, especially in this day and age, should be: listening is the most important thing.’