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November Music presents Children's Art Music Route on Sunday, November 7, 2021

Thinking up your own music, directing a group of musicians or playing with colourful synthesizers? There is also plenty to do for younger audiences during the November Music 2021 festival! Visit the very first edition of the KinderKunstmuziekRoute in 's-Hertogenbosch on Sunday 7 November 2021 and create your own music! The presentation of "So You Think You can Write a String Quartet?!" is on Wednesday 10 November. Or drop by for the... 

Read More "November Music presents Children's Art Music Route on Sunday, November 7, 2021

'A big iconic building with a park around it'. Culture Councils Amsterdam and Rijk set high bar for Slavery Museum

The Dutch Slavery Museum has moved a step closer, now that the Arts Council (Amsterdam) and the Council for Culture (Rijk) have issued an opinion on the exploration of a direction group presented earlier this year. This satisfies official procedural due diligence, although establishing the necessary museum in this way seems likely to take at least as much time.... 

Read More "'A big iconic building with a park around it'. Culture Councils Amsterdam and Rijk set high bar for Slavery Museum

Review Hebriana: Dead-end lives

Put three neurotic sisters with their mother hen and errant brothers-in-law together in a parental holiday villa with beautifully translated text by Las Norén and you're bound to get some nasty Scandinavian family stuff. But luckily there is the wafting acquaintance Axel, a convincing role by Mark Rietman. Already at the start of the performance with the tableau de la troupe alongside... 

Read More "Review Hebriana: Dead-end lives

Podcast on the accordion's orchestral power: Blood Chorale by Toeac at November Music 2021.

The link between the Orpheus myth and Arnhem potenrammers is more obvious than you might think. At least, if your name is Peer Wittenbols and you are one of the country's best playwrights. That you can also think of accordions as part of that is, in turn, extraordinary. Still, Blood Coral, a performance by accordion duo Toeac, with a lead role for Jack Wouterse on a text that promises... 

Read More "Podcast on the accordion's orchestral power: Blood Chorale by Toeac at November Music 2021.

Podcast artZINnig #1: comedian Thjum Arts on humour, social work and the meaning of life.

'The contact you make with your audience as a comedian is the highest thing for me.' When comedian Thjum Arts (1993) started breaking through as a comedian around 2018, he wondered if this was what he really wanted. As a human being, should he really want to talk about himself so much? Studying social work would have... 

Read More "Podcast artZINnig #1: comedian Thjum Arts on humour, social work and the meaning of life.

'Think about your life before something bad happens to you'. The latest interview with Ruud ten Wolde

For RTL-Boulevard reporter Ruud ten Wolde (29), these weeks would be dominated by his book Ill Happy, which comes in at number 1 in the Bestseller 60 this week, in which he writes about his illness and the insights it has brought him. Although he had been ill for six years, he still died suddenly recently. We spoke to him five... 

Read More "'Think about your life before something bad happens to you'. The latest interview with Ruud ten Wolde

Festival Circolo: relaxed and sunny festival celebrates circus innovation without glitz

A campfire, primeval hamburgers and flammkuchen with bacon and cream, as well as coffee with oat milk and remarkably many loose buns in Tilburg's Leijpark. White wine, kombucha and speciality beer. Some people get pimples from such combinations, but it felt remarkably good, last Monday at Festival Circolo. The hipster folk, considered super sustainable, mixed effortlessly with the burgundian Brabanter, so in... 

Read More "Festival Circolo: relaxed and sunny festival celebrates circus innovation without glitz

Jan-Bas Bollen on November Music: 'I experience music as a purely sonic event. I can enjoy a metal band immensely, but also drum 'n bass.'

His life is a strange journey through time, a giant leap forward from one musical culture to another. His mother was a composer and singer, his father accompanied a relay of famous song singers as a pianist. And Jan-Bas Bollen (1961) took to the stage early on as a promising violin talent. In 1970, a child of nine, he played at the Oscar Back Violin Competition, and... 

Read More "Jan-Bas Bollen on November Music: 'I experience music as a purely sonic event. I can enjoy a metal band immensely, but also drum 'n bass.'

Jam-packed opening weekend of Festival Circolo - Audiences' ears and eyes are in short supply during first weekend of Netherlands' biggest circus festival

After two years of dreaming and planning, today is finally the day: Festival Circolo - the largest circus festival in the Netherlands - is back! From 22 to Sunday 31 October, Tilburg's Leijpark will transform into an oasis full of spectacle, acrobatics and humour. Framed by the beautiful autumnal colours of the park, visitors will be treated to modern circus of international top level.... 

Read More "Jam-packed opening weekend of Festival Circolo - Audiences' ears and eyes are in short supply during first weekend of Netherlands' biggest circus festival

Composer Morris Kliphuis on High Dive with Lucky Fonz III: 'Every composer is a little dictator' #novembermusic

The Bossche sounds in November are contemporary. Since '93, the city has acted as a sounding board for today's music under festival name November Music. I talked to Morris Kliphuis (composer) and lyricist Otto Wichers (Lucky Fonz III), about their musical piece High Dive. The song cycle will premiere 11 November at the Verkadefabriek, performed by singer Pitou and ensemble stargaze.... 

Read More "Composer Morris Kliphuis on High Dive with Lucky Fonz III: 'Every composer is a little dictator' #novembermusic

Betrayal as an act of love. Review of 'A friendship' by Silvia Avallone

'And then I had to recognise that too: that you cannot live, cannot grow, without experiencing a wrong friendship.' That is the conclusion drawn by Elisa, the protagonist of Silvia Avallone's new novel A Friendship. Many people will probably recognise it, that attraction to a friend or girlfriend who is not actually right for you or right for you, but... 

Read More "Betrayal as an act of love. Review of 'A friendship' by Silvia Avallone

Stille Nacht Am Silbersee is a unique musical sound poem: 'A single word can evoke a world.' #novembermusic

'Every time I go to a beach, I see the sea through a filter of all the texts written about the sea.' Writer Joachim Robbrecht, at the request of Romain Bisschoff and together with writer brother Artun Alaska Arasli, created a sound poem for Ensemble Silbersee. During November Music, the work will finally premiere, after it had been a year... 

Read More "Stille Nacht Am Silbersee is a unique musical sound poem: 'A single word can evoke a world.' #novembermusic

Too divided for unity. How a booklet on yoga nearly brought writer Emmanuel Carrère to the brink of collapse

A light-hearted and delicate little book on yoga is what French author Emmanuel Carrère intends to write. By this, he does not mean the glorified form of gymnastics that so many practise, no, he is talking about the sacred yoga that leads to calming the mind, to serenity and pure perception of what is. Al also goes after... 

Read More "Too divided for unity. How a booklet on yoga nearly brought writer Emmanuel Carrère to the brink of collapse
Botero

Why never say, 'Botero, that's that fat-woman painter, isn't it?

Mons (Mons), a Walloon pinhead on the French border, became European Capital of Culture in 2015. To everyone's surprise. The city presents its umpteenth major exhibition this autumn and winter: Fernando Botero, beyond the forms. 3 questions are addressed in this story: 1) How does a small city like Mons get all that done? 2) Why never say:... 

Read More "Why never say, 'Botero, that's that fat-woman painter, isn't it?

'NOW support saved us, but creates a lot of extra workload afterwards.'

At the end of July, we posted an appeal by the UWV on this site. The benefit agency sounded the alarm because few cultural organisations had yet completed their final application for corona support. If they had not submitted the application corresponding to the advance received earlier before 31 October, they would have to repay that advance anyway. Every reason to take a... 

Read More "'NOW support saved us, but creates a lot of extra workload afterwards.'

Nina Hiddema, director a.i. of the Netherlands Reisopera: 'Nicolas Mansfield's succession is going to take some time to complete

'A sorcerer's apprentice? It is really not the case that Josef Fuchs could and would single-handedly bend an entire application process to his will. That is pertinently untrue and I even find it damaging to his person.' Nina Hiddema reacts vehemently to our article on Josef Fuchs' remarkable job title, and the change in it. Read more about the... 

Read More "Nina Hiddema, director a.i. of the Netherlands Reisopera: 'Nicolas Mansfield's succession is going to take some time to complete

Compact Iliad by Alum is ode to invincible writer Homer.

Troy is rather hot, this year. The Hague has just premiered Trojan Wars, an insane marathon performance (5 hours), with 35 actors for 40 roles and a text that, apart from being by Homer, is very clearly by Peer Wittenbols. Who I admire boundlessly. A review by colleague Peter Olsthoorn can be read on this site.... 

Read More "Compact Iliad by Alum is ode to invincible writer Homer.

Jolanda Spoel seamlessly forges hip-hop and classical together in Melomaniac. And that is quite difficult

'They come from two worlds, but work together towards something that is one. Jolanda Spoel has done that perfectly'. Katinka Reinders, head of education at the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, is enthusiastic after one of the first play-in performances of Melomaniac at Maas Theatre & Dance. Just now, a room full of somewhat timid secondary school students turned into a churning group of lovers of... 

Read More "Jolanda Spoel seamlessly forges hip-hop and classical together in Melomaniac. And that is quite difficult

New at Festival Circolo: The stage is at least as exciting when you can only hear it.

During Tilburg circus festival Circolo, you can experience it, if you want to, and certainly if you can't help it: audio description. Especially for the blind and visually impaired, the festival offers the services of Komt Het Zien, a company specialising in live description of what is on stage in front of you. Founder Arlette Hanson, is one such... 

Read More "New at Festival Circolo: The stage is at least as exciting when you can only hear it.

'Smash the crystal ball. Empathise with future generations!' - About Digital Decisiveness #2

Perhaps the COVID pandemic did not itself create unprecedented inventions and new things, but unexpected things that were already there suddenly came to the fore. Like podcasts, like online art, like new views on leadership and a different way of looking at the future. Very briefly, this is what you take away from the total of eight hours of... 

Read More "'Smash the crystal ball. Empathise with future generations!' - About Digital Decisiveness #2

New Maas Theatre and Dance management sets high stakes with peppery game show

We spend much of our lives saving our asses. You'd better be a bit cheerful about that, because life isn't manufacturable anyway. These are no small life lessons that René Geerlings, the new boss of Rotterdam-based Maas Theatre and Dance, deploys in his first play as artistic director. Still... 

Read More "New Maas Theatre and Dance management sets high stakes with peppery game show

CALL: Are you an independent entrepreneurial artist in Amsterdam and have you been or are you affected by the consequences of the corona crisis? Then the UvA is looking for you!

A request came in from the University of Amsterdam. After all, they like to get in touch with independent artists. Only from Amsterdam, admittedly, but still. We share the main part of the request here. Research on self-employed artists in times of crisis The corona crisis has (had) a major impact on self-employed artists. The University of Amsterdam is investigating the impact of the corona crisis on... 

Read More "CALL: Are you an independent entrepreneurial artist in Amsterdam and have you been or are you affected by the consequences of the corona crisis? Then the UvA is looking for you!

'We're not going to talk about Jiskefet, are we?' For Michiel Romeyn, all of life is theatre

Even though the satirical programme Jiskefet has not existed for more than 15 years, Michiel Romeyn (66) is still recognised on the street as 'lullo' Van Binsbergen, 'the white nigger' Oboema or office clerk Storm. In Romeyn's existence, the dividing line between life and theatre is fluid. 'I like to disrupt things.' Robert Lagendijk and Michiel Romeyn © Carla van... 

Read More "'We're not going to talk about Jiskefet, are we?' For Michiel Romeyn, all of life is theatre

Monique Hendriks wins NK Poetry Slam 2021

Jury and audience unanimous on new Dutch Poetry Slam champion Monique Hendriks has become Dutch Poetry Slam Champion 2021. After preliminary rounds across the country, eleven poetry slammers faced each other in the final on Friday evening 24 September, during the International Literature Festival Utrecht. Monique Hendriks took on Lucas Kloosterboer in the final battle and captured the national... 

Read More "Monique Hendriks wins NK Poetry Slam 2021

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