Old or new, classic or modern, minimal or world. Pop. Tonal and atonal.
Jazz-Rock, it still exists. In all those years of sitting in the theatre, reading books or listening to David Bowie or Rufus Wainwright, I had kind of forgotten about it. Music by real men, Heavy Metal for people who have studied for it, Gothic but with several conservatory degrees under their belt. Subtle chopping where the drummer's left hand is a 17/23rd...
It was busy at Amsterdam's Westergas area, this Thursday, 6 June. Fantastic, of course, that not only do you have a couple of excellent running restaurants and clubs there, and the evening four-day march passes by while there is a big salsa party at the club near the world-famous Gashouder, but then it still feels a bit weird that the royal opening of the...
During Composer's Day, celebrate the importance as well as the joy of contemporary music and today's composers In Night Shift - The Rehearsal by Cathy Milliken, the audience playfully becomes co-makers and players. Together, musicians, choir, soloists and conductor create a world where the boundaries between them are blurred. Midsummer Night's Dream as inspiration Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream provides the starting point...
After a successful first edition of Eye meets Marmoucha, Marmoucha Orchestra is back at Eye for a special event: the live accompaniment of the silent film Kif Tebbi on 8 June. Kif Tebbi When the Turks loot the countryside in Libya for supplies for their troops, Mné, an Arab girl from a nomad tribe with whom Ismaïl is in love, flees through...
The new edition of >CONNECT: The Audience as Artist<, made possible by Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne, will feature a new commission by Austrian-German composer Brigitta Muntendorf as well as welcome a new fifth partner ensemble, Ensemble intercontemporain (Paris). This groundbreaking multi-year project aims to redefine the relationship between artists and audiences by involving audiences as direct participants in...
Kinan Abuakel took his Syrian classical music with him when he fled the country. With his Saz, a Syrian stringed instrument similar to the Greek bouzouki, which in turn is derived from the Turkish Buzuk, he plays a mixture of new and classical Syrian music. I heard it by surprise at Amsterdam's Podium Mozaïek. That's how I discovered live what I...
"Jazzenzo no longer welcome at venues and festivals," claims online jazz magazine Jazzenzo. The reason is a letter the medium received from the BIM House on 24 April. In that letter, co-signed by an impressive number of prestigious venues and festivals such as TivoliVredenburg and North Sea Jazz, the BIM house announces that it will no longer grant free tickets to the unpaid reporters of...
The pulse of Steve Reich's work lends itself ideally to transforming the atmosphere of a metropolis into music. Street sounds For City Life, Steve Reich took to the streets to record the sounds of New York. Conversations, car horns and alarms, a pile driver, slamming doors, as well as the beating of a heart. Played on samplers...
Marmoucha Orchestra and Mehdi Nassouli present "Sonic Bridges" at Jazzahead 2024: A new era in Jazz and Gnawa exploration With great enthusiasm and pride, we announce that the Marmoucha Orchestra, in collaboration with renowned Gnawa musician Mehdi Nassouli, has been selected to perform at the prestigious Jazzahead! 2024 showcase. As the largest jazz fair in Europe, Jazzahead! offers a unique...
Together with Alexandre Kordzaia, aka Kordz, Asko|Schönberg pays a special tribute to (film) composer and synthesiser pioneer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died a year ago. Sakomoto (1952 - March 2023) became best known for his music for films such as Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, The Last Emperor, The Revenant and most recently the film Monster. He also pioneered synth and electropop with which...
Be surprised, entertained, moved and stimulate your brain at the Delft Fringe Festival Delft, Tuesday 5 March 2024 - This year's Delft Fringe Festival will take place from 28 May to 9 June. It is the 13th time the festival has been organised in Delft. From 410 applications, 28 makers have been selected to be seen this summer...
Be taken on an extraordinary journey. Arin Keshishi, the virtuoso bassist and artistic director of the renowned Marmoucha Orchestra, unveils "Self-Reflection: The Live Experience" Self-reflection of masterful bassist and artistic director of the Marmoucha Orchestra. In this edition, we highlight Arin Keshishi, an exceptionally talented bassist and the new artistic director of the Marmoucha Orchestra. His...
A performance by Marmoucha featuring the dynamic duo of The Pig Factory, Mohammed Azaay and Karim El Guennouni. In a world of shadows and contrasts, Christiaan and Ali, each coloured by their own beliefs, are diametrically opposed. Their life experiences and circumstances have shaped their views and behaviour. Theatre-makers Mohammed Azaay and Karim El Guennouni take on a refreshingly outspoken and entertaining...
It was a chilly Thursday evening before Christmas 2023 and a grim atmosphere hung in the wedding hall of the old Utrecht city hall. Where during the day countless Utrechters were saying yes to each other, two partners were now facing each other. They no longer looked at each other, each had gathered their own supporters. Angry words rang out from one, bewildered words from the other. Members...
Industry news. The music sector needs to be safer and more inclusive. That is the industry's own conclusion after Movisie's survey of nearly 1,000 music professionals. In it, more than 50% of respondents said they had experienced cross-border behaviour during their work in the form of discrimination, aggression or sexual abuse. During Eurosonic Noorderslag in Groningen, Taskforce launches...
Asko|Schönberg, with expressive soprano Katrien Baerts and versatile clarinettist David Kweksilber, brings music from the streets to the concert hall. On Thursday 25 January, four different pieces will be featured during Roots & Grooves. Folk music served as inspiration for John Adams' clarinet concerto. So did Leoš Janáček/Tim Mulleman's Moravian folk songs. For the spectacular Gougalōn, Unsuk Chin was inspired by the...
The sacred must of Andrea Voets: "I really am the very hardest customer of my own work" by Cultural Press Agency A good conversation with composer, harpist, electronic music maker and podcaster Andrea Voets. Read on Substack "I never thought just playing music was enough." Andrea Voets (34) is a rising star in the arts, but can't be pigeonholed into a...
The recording studio and residency venue of Antwerp's Sound In Motion/SIM under construction is why the Belgian cultural sector is miles ahead of that of the Netherlands in one important respect. Magic word is: residency. Do It Yourself From Antwerp, the couple Christel and Koen, both marinated in the DIY ideology of punk, have long been bombarding city and world with concerts...
On Sunday 14 January at 3pm, the dance and music performance Tegenwind will premiere at the Chassé theatre in Breda, a family performance for everyone aged 7 and above. Tegenwind is the sequel to the successful collaboration of dance company de Stilte and Artvark saxophone quartet in the production Bosch in Bed. Anyone listening to Blowin' in the wind by Bob Dylan will hear a song...
ITA, HOLLAND FESTIVAL AND NDT PRESENT BIBERATING PROGRAMS ONLINE, IN DIGITAL THEATER International Theatre Amsterdam, Holland Festival and Nederlands Dans Theater will present groundbreaking programmes online, in the Digital Theatre, during the Christmas holidays. In order to connect makers, companies and (inter)national visitors, the initiators choose a programme during the Christmas holidays. The ideal period to be together, to feel...
It is one of my worst guilty pleasures. Egg salad from the better-filled mayonnaise manufacturer from Twente, with a close second to their tuna salad. I can't get enough of those. And now let them have both of those on the table at Het Kerstdiner in Theater Kleine Willem in Enschede. Chic is different, but in the...
I used the word 'revolutionary' when a camera crew from Theatre Rotterdam asked me what I thought of Closed Eyes. I don't know if my otherwise extraordinarily enthusiastic response will make it to the final edit, but a day later, that feeling is not gone. What Alida Dors, artistic director of Theatre Rotterdam, has shown is a revolution in the world of...
1. During 9/11, I was in Salamanca with two friends. The day Geert Wilders managed to amass 37 seats (thank you VVD and normalising media), I was in Rabat, attending the Visa for Music music conference, with which the European Jazz Network (one of the best-functioning networks within European cultural funding, I say as a new kid...
It was 2000 and Wim Kayzer, of the VPRO, brought a series of television evenings that went against everything commercial. It was called 'Of Beauty and Consolation' and featured evening-long interviews with people like Jane Goodall, J.M. Coetzee, Karel Appel and George Steiner. Intellectuals, artists, thinkers. On 23 November 2023, the day after 22/11, when the Netherlands held an open...
Enter the world of 'Dancing Strings'. Together with Marmoucha, Dancing Strings Festival brings together the world's most enchanting stringed instruments, with a focus on the ancient and masterful 'ud. The festival takes audiences on a musical journey where the 'ud shines as a solo instrument but also as an integral part of various line-ups featuring stringed instruments from different cultures. The festival's programme consists of five parts each evening. The composers will play their own works and be accompanied by the Marmoucha Orchestra. These works have been arranged by Ardashes Aghosian.
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