Dankzij de informele tamtam ziet deze muziekverteller een megakans. Trio De grote drie. Daar wil ik het over hebben. Waarbij ik de Vlamingen Damiaan Denys, Paul Verhaeghe en Dirk de Wachter nu eens niet bedoel. Schrijvers Harry, Gerard en Willem F. laat ik ook links liggen. Vraag het de luisteraars van deze Muziekverteller en ze weten je vast te helpen:…
'Thea, have you heard that new piece yet? It's beautiful!' And there plopped another wetransfer in with a recording by Kate Moore, Pete Harden, Calliope Tsoupaki or any other composer. Frans Curvers was at the front of every (world) premiere. Whether it took place at Paradiso in Amsterdam, De Doelen in Rotterdam, TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht or a backstreet church somewhere....
Slowly but surely, the absurdity of the rescue measures for the cultural sector is sinking in. The national museums will not have to pay rent for three months for a while, but will have to pay it back retroactively once the crisis is over. Entrepreneurs can get extra support worth 4,000 euros, provided they have business premises outside their homes. Actors, directors (also freelance journalists, by the way) and artists...
In 2016 initieerde fotograaf en beeldend kunstenaar Jaap van den Berg een bijzonder project in Gouda. In het historische centrum op de Markt stelde hij diverse mensen van allerlei rangen en standen de vraag: Waarom gaat het goed in je leven? Mensen die op die vraag ingingen zette Van den Berg daarna op de foto. Er werden 140 portretten gekozen…
Fred Goessens has been dead, but is still alive. As uncompromising as ever. The Netherlands' most reliable actor makes an interim will after twenty-two years with Toneelgroep Amsterdam. 'I had shit on everything' This interview was published 10 years ago in TheaterMaker, the trade magazine for the theatre sector. As Fred Goessens is now leaving ITA, the company where he once...
The new year often starts with new insights and resolutions. A critical reflection can then help. We were therefore delighted to read the Volkskrant of 2 January, in which columnist and theatre critic Merlijn Kerkhof concludes that in 2020, he wants to enjoy all that the Netherlands has to offer in terms of culture a bit more often outside 020. And that is only right,...
I am sitting at the dinner table at my parents' house. We are celebrating my mother's birthday with the whole family. I am there, but I am not quite there. In fact, I am so incredibly tired at the moment. As I jokingly tell my friends, "I can't say boo or boo anymore and am running on my gums". Suddenly, the conversation turns to...
Art has always needed explanation. Even 'easy' art, even 'art that sells itself'. Art has needed that explanation ever since the first caveman found out that her sooty smudges on the cave wall looked very much like a bison. Actually, this is why it is wrong to speak of 'explanation' and 'need'. Art and story are one, since the...
With red cheeks, I hang up the phone a little bewildered. Just now I had a telephone appointment that took a completely different turn. I had a brief conversation with a theatre programmer who is still unknown to me. She unfortunately told me not to programme anything with our impresario, because there was really no need for artistic performances in her city. This lady stated that her...
Fifty years ago, some tomatoes and smoke bombs flew through Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg. This will be commemorated on 4 November at ITA, the former Stadsschouwburg, with a gathering for which, according to the many e-mails I receive, not all tickets have been sold yet. Meanwhile, voluminous essays are appearing in the trade magazine and many are wondering whether there might not be another tomato...
"When you tell it, it all seems so logical," a good friend said last week, "if a board were to hear this..." Education, every day it is in the newspaper and we debate society-wide dully about the importance of good education, about teacher shortages and class sizes. While the cabinet sits mute in the hope of getting out from under...
Voor ik iets inhoudelijks zeg over Lazarus, zondag 13 oktober dé musicalpremière voor mensen die nooit naar musicals gaan, een paar misverstanden de wereld uit. Allereerst, het album Blackstar, dat David Bowie drie dagen voor zijn dood op 11 januari 2016 uitbracht, is níet de soundtrack van Lazarus, de musical van zijn hand die een maand voor zijn dood uitkwam.…
'We will never be 'the same' enough, we fringe characters: bipolar, borderline, gay, lesbian, indeterminate, narcissistic, autistic, hysterical - and we are all fatally insecure and we all need a hug.' Permanent, seemingly inevitable insecurity is peculiar to the theatre industry. Ramsey Nasr hit that sharply in his speech on receiving his second Louis D'Or. The courage, or sometimes almost masochistic...
Our administrators and elected representatives will not openly admit it, but they do not really care about a healthy cultural sector, let alone the position of individual creators and artists. Indeed, making a Fair Practice Code compulsory without increasing the budget for culture is a slap in the face for everyone working in the arts sector. 'Then be...
An artist creates something - but for whom and why? How does the created thing relate to society and what role does that creation want to play in it? Besides all the theatre performances at Noorderzon, there is also the critical question: 'What is actually the point of theatre?' Can art fraternise people? That's not so easy. Take theatre-goers. They are rather alike....
Recently, Kees Vlaardingerbroek, programmer of the NTRZaterdagMatinee published a plea against what he calls 'identity politics' in music. 'Bach was not a woman and not Western. So what?" reads the headline. In the subtitle, we read: 'If a composer is not a woman or Western, then it no longer fits into the classical canon.' Quite boldly put, because in any concert brochure you will find...
Searching for what I stand for and which way to go, time and again I come across facts that confuse and amaze me. I live in a country where only a single woman is in De Volkskrant top ten most influential people - in tenth place, that is. Only three out of 100 young Dutch millionaires...
Ten years ago, I got new glasses. Two weeks later, a retired ophthalmologist drove his car through my left leg and a month after that, from a wheelchair - fortunately temporary - the idea for the Cultural Press Bureau was born. Partly because the arts editorships of the Associated Press Service and NRC were decimated. So September 26 is just a date,...
Ophef. Een algemeen erkend en naar eigen zeggen altijd aangevallen opiniemaker met een lichte voorkeur voor sterke mannen in Rusland en Amerika heeft ontdekt dat kunst links is en elitair. Wierd Duk, Ruslandkenner sinds hij een paar jaar voor diverse media in Moskou rondliep, schrijft in de Telegraaf namelijk dat kunst vaak linkse kitsch is[ref]N[ref][/ref]Wierd Duk heeft inmiddels laten weten…
Late last year, the organisers of an alumni evening for research master's students asked me to defend a thesis from my current position as a cultural leader. It had to be about my position as a literary scholar by telling them about my professional path since graduation. I could frame this article hopefully and hopeful and elaborate on the competences that the...
I want to travel with you. Taking you to the beach. Imagine sitting on the beach, as the sun's rays warm you, listening to the sound of the surf, with rising and falling waves. You sniff the salty scent. A bird flies by. The sun casts its rays on the clear blue water. A big wave slams down on the...
In my work, I entice people to come into contact with art. And especially art with a big K. The art that is often marketed as 'difficult' or, in an attempt to get rid of its negative image, as 'vulnerable'. Liberal politicians would perhaps say art that 'doesn't act normal'. It is the kind of...
Meer dan een miljoen Nederlanders voelt zich zeer eenzaam, aldus de Gezondheidsmonitor 2012. Hieronder zijn steeds meer jongeren – alle sociale media ten spijt. Misschien zouden we deze ‘eenzaamheidsepidemie’ een halt toe kunnen roepen als we ons realiseerden dat geen van ons werkelijk alleen is. Wat we zo vaak vergeten, is dat we direct verbonden zijn met duizenden anderen: de mensen…
Well, we're not big on hypes and traditions here, but still. The dark days around Christmas are very dark this year, so why not something with lists. This year, no list of toppers from the editors, but random entries from random readers, in random, if slightly alphabetical order. Motto of the reader question was: which things...
In een verloren uurtje de Cultuurvisie Amersfoort 2030 gelezen. Geen lectuur om op het puntje van je stoel te zitten, maar uitermate geschikt voor een treinreis. Ik ben het niet gewend om beleidsstukken te lezen. Het viel me op dat de toon van de Amersfoortse Cultuurvisie zelfverzekerd, doelgericht en vastbesloten was. Ferme taal. Geen ruimte voor twijfel. Ik vroeg me…
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