Thea Derks studied English and Musicology. In 1996, she completed her studies in musicology cum laude at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in contemporary music and in 2014 published the critically acclaimed biography 'Reinbert de Leeuw: man or melody'. Four years on, she completed 'An ox on the roof: modern music in vogevlucht', aimed especially at the interested layperson. You buy it here: https://www.boekenbestellen.nl/boek/een-os-op-het-dak/9789012345675 In 2020, the 3rd edition of the Reinbertbio appeared,with 2 additional chapters describing the period 2014-2020. These also appeared separately as Final Chord.
Toonkunstkoor Amsterdam has had a name to live up to since its establishment in 1829. In earlier times, it was invariably on hand when the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Willem Mengelberg performed large-scale choral works. Although the choir still consists of amateurs and its ties with the illustrious orchestra have weakened, it still puts (very) demanding pieces on its desks. For instance, the...
Tonight at Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra plays the Flute Concerto Dances with the Winds by Einojuhani Rautavaara. Originally Peter Schat's Spring Concert was scheduled, but soloist Jacques Zoon chose to swap it for the Finnish composer's piece.
Tonight and tomorrow night, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra kicks off the fourth season of the AAA series, with film music under the title 'Suspense'. But not everyone will immediately associate composers like Bartók, Lutyens and Schoenberg with cinema.
This month, Reinbert de Leeuw celebrates his seventy-fifth birthday. Not only do television, radio, internet media and written press devote extensive attention to the no small achievements of this champion of contemporary music, but he is also being honoured with his own festival, 'Reinbert 75'. This will be organised
Ever since the establishment of the NJO Summer Academy in 2001, one composer takes centre stage every year, in the current edition it is Steve Reich (1936). During the NJO Music Summer, two hundred music students from fifteen countries will play a good number of compositions by the American grandmaster.
Holland Festival
Is the kingdom of the dead in the opera Sunken Garden by Michel van der Aa a 3D garden full of brilliant colour, director Peter Sellars chooses in Desdemona by Toni Morrison and Rokia Traoré for sober black and white. On the stage of a sold-out Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ are glass bottles and jars, sometimes lit from below, sometimes from above, with hanging light bulbs like flickering candles. On the left are a number of ngonis (Malian lute) and two koras (Malian harp lute), played by black musicians.
Holland Festival
Amsterdam, 5-6-2013 - It is difficult to go uninhibited to a production that has already caused so much controversy as Sunken Garden by Michel van der Aa. This "first 3D opera" was slammed as "soporific" after its premiere at London's Barbican Theatre last April, but also hailed as "the future of opera".
On 8 September next, pianist, composer and conductor Reinbert de Leeuw hopes to turn 75 and this will be celebrated with a range of events. These include a three-day festival dedicated to him in The Hague and Amsterdam at the end of September, and next season he will be
Hilversum, 1-5-2013 - On Labour Day, the VARA programme spent The Guide on Radio 1 focused on the impending abolition of the library of the broadcaster, causing some 10 highly specialised and dedicated staff to lose their jobs. Although this immense and unique archive, which houses some five kilometres of scores, parts and books, can be kept afloat for half a million euros, it will still be disbanded from 1 August.
With Tragedy of a Friendship commemorates Flanders Opera the bicentenary of Richard Wagner's birth. It is a production by controversial artist Jan Fabre, author Stefan Hertmans and composer Moritz Eggert. When I approach the German tone poet to talk about this opera, he reacts with shock: there is ab-so-lutely no question of an opera! Could I please clear up this misunderstanding once and for all?
At his 53e can Willem Jeths boasts an impressive career. His orchestral and chamber music works are performed worldwide and have been recorded on many CDs. In 2008, the newly built Muziekkwartier in Enschede opened with his opera Hotel de Pékin, and three years later the recording of his ode to gay marriage reached Monument to a Universal Marriage even US President Obama. At the request of the Saturday Matinee Jeths wrote his First Symphony for the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the mezzo-soprano Karin Strobos, which will premiere it at the Concertgebouw on 13 April.
When Muziekcentrum Vredenburg closed its doors in 2007 for an ambitious renovation, symphonic concerts were moved from the centre of Utrecht to the emergency location Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn on the A2 motorway. The broadcasting series 'Vredenburg Friday'
In 2005, director Laurent Pelly and conductor Stéphane Denève enchanted Dutch audiences with their vision of L'amour des trois oranges By Sergei Prokofiev.
Three hundred years ago, the Treaty of Utrecht was signed, bringing an end to both the War of Spanish Succession, and the War of Queen Anne. Remarkably, this peace treaty was not negotiated on the battlefield, but at the negotiating table. It took a year and a half for the many parties to come to an agreement, and the treaty counts as the beginning of...
Utrecht, 22-12-2013 - After the final notes of Pierre de Machicourt's motet Reges Terrae, the audience stood in Vredenburg Leeuwenbergh as one man on to the Egidius Quartet rewarding them with a well-deserved ovation.
Two years ago he was acclaimed for his staging of A Dog's Heart by Alexander Raskatov, now he is lavishly believed for his production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. It premiered last week at The Netherlands Opera and last night too, the sold-out audience responded enthusiastically. Yet the high expectations were not quite met.
Amsterdam, 10-12-2012 - Last weekend the Babelfestival began at the Ostade Theatre, an initiative of the Diamond factory. Founded two years ago, this production group offers young creators the chance to develop small-scale musical theatre. This weekend sees the premiere of Black Perfume, by Russian composer Anna Mikhailova and the Dutch director Annechien Koerselman, to the story Morphine by Mikhail Bulgakov.
Amsterdam, 26-11-2012 - Last Saturday died Moniek Toebosch (1948-2012), the sparkling multi-artist who startled our country from the 1970s onwards with contrary performances. Some of you may remember her scandalous performance in the 1983 Holland Festival. Toebosch presented the programme 'Attacks of Extremes' live for VPRO television from Theater Carré. After half the Broadcasting Orchestra had quit in protest,...
Since the broadcasting series Vredenburg Friday started six years ago, it has managed to attract an ever-expanding audience. This despite the initially rather inhospitable emergency location on the A2 motorway, whose curse name 'Red Box' has since become a nickname for audiences and musicians alike.
's Hertogenbosch 9-11-2012 - November Music was successfully kicked off last Wednesday and also focuses on multimedia in its twentieth edition. The duo Strijbos & Van Merwijk was a frequent guest there and that afternoon received the Prince Bernhardcultuurprijs Noord-Brabant, presented by former Concertgebouw director Martijn Sanders. In the evening, their pulled for the American string quartet ETHEL multimedia spectacle made Cross Avenue many audiences, the two performances of Cloud-Messenger By Fred Momotenko were even completely sold out.
Amsterdam, 10-10-2012 - Already last summer, the Dutch Chamber Choir (NKK) through our country, working with amateur choirs at surprise station concerts to draw the attention of the general public to its seventy-fifth anniversary. In the coming weeks, this anniversary will be celebrated with a series of concerts in seven different cities, under the recruiting title 'A tradition of renewal'.
Amsterdam, 8 October 2012 During the well-attended Classical Music Day at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ the prize winners of the competition for women composers were announced this afternoon. The day was organised for the 11th time by Music centre Netherlands (MCN), which will cease to exist on 1 January. Thanks to an anonymous bequest, explicitly intended for women composers, three prizes could be awarded.
No fewer than eight collections of arias, cantatas, duets and sacred works were published by Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677). She enjoyed great prestige in the Accademia degli unisoni founded by her father, and lived off her compositions.
The Netherlands Opera opens the season with a rarely performed opera by Franz Schreker, which mixes pagan and Christian themes. The brilliant music is countered by the chilly direction, preventing identification with the characters.
In his Requiem for tenor, narrator and ensemble, Micha Hamel makes the most of the space of Amsterdam's De Duif church. Musicians play on the altar, from the balconies, mingle among the audience and push out a piano. - But what does Hamel really want to say? In front of a sold-out house, Micha Hamel's Requiem premiered last night. He ...
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