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For most artists, it is an ideal. Being represented by a gallery. Writers have their sights set on a contract with a publisher. Musicians eye labels eagerly and theatre-makers queue up for an impresario. Creators have a love-hate relationship with such intermediaries. Because while the average creative professional would be willing to spare a toe in exchange...
Stories about jazz are more often about dead heroes than about the future. If they do reflect on jazz's prospects, they are usually bleak. The genre has been declared dead more than once, and if jazz is not dead, it has at least moved or smells funny. British essayist Geoff Dyer published a decade...
We usually don't think about it, but marketing is all around us. And that while we can learn a lot from all those good examples. And certainly also from the not so good ones. Recently, I saw on TV an interview with the world star Stromae. This young Belgian rapper and musician has been very successful in recent years. Whether you...
It is a little after ten o'clock. I'm on my way to the bakery on Rotterdam's Nieuwe Binnenweg. I pass a coffee shop, a bicycle shop, an off-licence. I also pass the hairdresser's where about 12 men are waiting in front of the door. An hour before the doors open. "Yes but wait... A hairdresser that doesn't open until 11 o'clock...
On Monday 27 October, "The Culture Congress" took place. A cleverly chosen name that suggested that this congress was unique in its kind and that there was a big organisation behind it. All the more surprising that this was only the first edition. And that the initiative came from one person. During his opening speech, Job Gerlings took us through...
The post on facebook that dominated my timeline today: the spontaneous concert at NS station Amsterdam Centraal, taken from the NRC's website (link: http://www.nrc.nl/muziek/2014/10/09/hoe-drie-artiesten-onverwacht-samen-optraden-op-adam-cs/ For several weeks, this station has had a piano on which anyone can play. A playful action by the NS to make waiting more fun. This leads to surprising situations. Like this one in which a pianist...
About the curious omissions from the nominations has already been one and other said. And it does clean up, of course: so many films, and then so few really good ones. Or so. Anyway. Friday 3 October is almost Animal Day and Feast of Sacrifice and therefore a great time for the Golden Calfs. Choose your favourites below. Let's see if it matches the results.
"Everyone today has a computer in their pocket (smartphone or glass) that gives you considerable computing power and communication technology per person. You can use that computing power and technology, to add augmented elements to entertainment." Just a response to a question. From a theatre. Because that theatre wants to look ahead: What does the theatre of the future look like? That question...
Amy Tan - a guest at the John Adams Institute in Amsterdam - personally introduced her new book to Dutch audiences this week: Valley of wonder. She gave a very personal lecture at the Amstelkerk on the difficult lives of her mother and grandmother in ancient China before the great agitator Mao. The setting: early 20th century...
By Melle Daamen 'What do you want then?' was a question I received quite often in response to my articles last year in NRC, in which I expressed my concerns about the state of the arts in the Netherlands and especially its future. I argued for a fundamental debate from within the arts sector itself, focusing on the future, including...
I published two articles in NRC Handelsblad last year. The first (6 July 2013) was critical of government policy. There was little reaction to this. The second article (7 December 2013) was critical of the arts sector: it needs to make its own sharp choices. That did cause a stir, although I am convinced that many colleagues largely agree with the content...
Because of my fascination with the complex relationship between listening and watching, I decided to visit three performances at the recent Holland Festival and experience what happened when I tried to pay equal attention to ears and eyes. The first was "Delusion of the Fury" (1966) by American composer Harry Partch, the second a concert performance of Philip Glass's opera "The CIVIL warS" (1983), the third a performance of Franz Schubert's "Die Winterreise" (1827) in which twenty-four short films by South African artist William Kentridge were shown.
Is a performance opera if not a note is sung? If the audience sits on a stand in a car park with headphones on their heads? Or if a man cries out like a dog with a tongue out of his mouth throughout the performance? The definitions of opera are stretched quite a bit at five Oerol performances. Interestingly, hardly anyone calls the performance opera. By necessity, musical theatre is often used, but that term does not really fall into a warm bath.
Although both performances were created in very different ways, parallels can be drawn between 'Romeo and Juliet. To Romeo and Juliet‘ by Karina Kroft and 'Crastest Ibsen II - People's Enemy' by Sarah Moeremans / Noord Nederlands Toneel. Director Karina Kroft and actor Joep van der Geest in conversation about their relationship with a classic play and their audience.
Literature is starting to conquer its place at Oerol, which makes sense because poetry and prose are everywhere. The landscape inspires writers and poets to write beautiful texts and at the same time, through literature, visitors take in the environment in a poetic way. What forms of literature can you encounter on Terschelling?
Experience is unnecessary and there is no upper age limit. At Sharon Fridman, professional dancers and amateurs dance together to create a performance on the beach. Daily guests can also learn about the dance routine.
Recently, you can also become a supporter of Culture Press. For 60 euros a year, you support our work, with no further obligations. That's a great way to further advance a unique news medium! 1: Culture Press is a readers' cooperative. Unlike, say, your favourite newspaper, with us you are not the product, with which we lure advertisers in. At...
William Forsythe, dance innovator, and widely regarded as one of the most important choreographers of our time, is quitting the company to which he attached his name on September 2015. The New York Times reports that. He will still remain associated with the company as an advisor, but the real management will probably be taken over by Jacopo Godani, a former student of the legendary choreographer.
According to minister Bussemaker it would all go down very well and Jet de Ranitz of Arts ' 92 felt that all those researchers were panic over nothing sowed. But so they are coming: new cuts to culture, and bigger than first expected. Maastricht, just equipped with a very broad board of B&W, will cut half a million from next year's culture budget first, and at least 750,000 more every year thereafter.
Much has been written about it. And much talked about: the Reinbert de Leeuw biography by Thea Derks, which Reinbert de Leeuw did not allow to be published. Now Thea Derks, a member of the Cultuurpers cooperative, gets to explain her side of things to Peter Gielissen, also a member of the Cultuurpers cooperative. Nice story turned out. On Lezen.tv
370 million cost to renovate the Rijksmuseum. All but a tonne. 5.5 million less than the last estimate from 2010. Which again it was almost quadruple the original budget, which still assumed 134 million. But that was before the crisis about those stairs and that cycle route, and before all kinds of construction companies went bankrupt, and before the whole thing was in danger of collapsing anyway.
The Holland Festival, we have been doing that for years. It is definitely the highlight of the cultural season. At the Holland Festival, you see how the international art world hangs out. In recent years, under the skilful leadership of Pierre Audi, the whole thing has become a lot less elitist and pompous than it used to be. A ticket often costs a lot less than An evening of André Rieu in Maastricht, to say the least.
Pretty tricky, marketing in the cultural sector. In part, you work in a market where these days people think that what is beautiful will sell itself, and the rest of the time you have to compete with a plethora of suppliers. And this is despite the government's attempts to drastically decimate cultural offerings. Or perhaps thanks to it. The market...
Seizure of the instruments of the former Netherlands Symphony Orchestra is imminent. The orchestra, which, since a lost legal battle with Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra is no longer allowed to use the word 'Dutch', so is not allowed to sell instruments or take them abroad. Pending a countermove from the former Orchestra of the East, they changed the name there to ***** Symphony Orchestra.
It used to be gays he found scary, but since that was no longer allowed, René van der Gijp started looking for a new target audience for his spot. Book week turned out to provide the perfect opportunity.
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