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Netherlands Wind Ensemble launches second tour of The Unknown Chaplin an ode to Chaplin's artistry, with newly composed music

After its successful tour last November, the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble will tour again with The Unknown Chaplin. The second tour - from 3 March to 22 March - will take in venues in Ede, Helmond, Tilburg, Den Haag, Amersfoort, Enschede, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. www.nbe.nl/programma/the-unknown-chaplin/ Six hilarious, humorous and melancholic silent films by the great universal genius Charlie... 

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HOLLAND FESTIVAL 2020 WITH BILL T. JONES IN SEARCH OF A 'WE'

From 4 to 28 June 2020, Amsterdam will host the 73rd edition of the Holland Festival. Associate Artist this year is American choreographer, director, writer and dancer Bill T. Jones. His work will include the new show Deep Blue Sea, in which Jones himself dances and, assisted by a hundred mostly local... 

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Song festival-gate update: fee for spectacle orchestra even lower

Those who want to be musicians have to bleed. Earlier, we reported that the highlight of the Dutch edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was going to be performed by professional musicians and conservatoire students who would receive 100 euros a day for it. Outrageously little, when you know that full days of work were going to be involved anyway, for eight days. Well: it's even worse than... 

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The self-employed are to blame for everything. Now also for the downfall of regional arts journalism.

In April 2020, the Persgroep, now DPG Media because it smells better internationally, will stop regional art supplements in its newspapers. No more art reports and interviews, hardly any reviews. Local bookshops will lose their stage in all Dutch regions, as the publisher of Volkskrant, Trouw and AD has a regional monopoly. The message, brought by a reporter from the Eindhovens Dagblad, struck... 

Read More "The self-employed are to blame for everything. Now also for the downfall of regional arts journalism.

Ekaterina Levental: 'I come from the very bottom of society, didn't even have the right to be here, was even less than a junkie.'

Singer, harpist and theatre-maker Ekaterina Levental (Tashkent, 1977) came to the Netherlands as a refugee in 1993, where she built a successful career. Together with her partner Chris Koolmees, she made the triptych De Weg, De Grens and Schoppenvrouw, in which she sings of her own difficult road to happiness. With her pocket performances, she holds up a mirror to us: 'We are quick to judge a... 

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Writing with your voice - Thea Beckman Prize winner Bianca Mastenbroek is not deterred by her disability

Becoming a writer without being able to use your fingers to type - Bianca Mastenbroek (44) no longer turns her hand to it. Last year, she won the Thea Beckman Prize for her historical novel Hendrick, the Dutch Indian. Looking back on a jubilee year: 'This prize is the crowning glory of my work'. For anyone who has yet to read your book Hendrick, de Hollandsche Indiaan,... 

Read More "Writing with your voice - Thea Beckman Prize winner Bianca Mastenbroek is not deterred by her disability

Netherlands Wind Ensemble plays 9th Beethoven in collaboration with Consensus Vocalis and local choirs: All Together!

From Thursday 23 January, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble (NBE) will play 9th Beethoven. The tour will take in venues in Amsterdam, Enschede, Tilburg, Wageningen, Drachten, Oss, Utrecht, Heerlen, Haarlem and Arnhem. In this great Beethoven year, the NBE chooses one of his most iconic works: the ninth symphony, with its famous ode Ode to Joy, on lyrics by Friedrich Schiller. In the political turmoil of around 1800, it was clear where Beethoven's sympathies lay: he was... 

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A great 2020 with the Holland Festival, vacancies and aus LICHT Opera of the Year

The Holland Festival wishes you a happy 2020! The full programme of the 73rd festival edition will be announced on 11 February. You can already order tickets for the five productions below. Also in this newsletter: vacancies for a head of operations/controller, an employee development and interns for the communication & marketing and production departments; and aus LICHT named Opera of the Year 2019.... 

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Kersjes Prize winner Lodewijk van der Ree: 'Language strongly determines the sound of a choir'

'An inspired conductor, with an intelligent approach to the score, a clear stroke and the ability to draw a choir into his vision. So says the jury of the Kersjes Prize about Lodewijk van der Ree (1986), who received this year's conducting prize. I have worked with him many times before and can wholeheartedly endorse this statement. Carte... 

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When was the last time I hopped? Eye impresses with Francis Alÿs' expo on the world as child's play

An exhibition with only children playing, doesn't that quickly become too tacky or cosy? Not if the artist is Francis Alÿs. Although it is hard not to smile at the sight of a sandcastle, I left the room with a head full of questions about the nature of humanity. No small feat of hopscotching kids and girls 

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Threatened theatre directors speaking: 'It literally hurts me when I hear that something like this is going to be abolished.'

'I didn't know you could also be digitised away in this sector, but so you can.' Susanne Visser and Annemiek Lely sounded the alarm on Saturday 7 December. Their jobs as ushers at theatre performances are in jeopardy. Companies would rather keep people engaged through podcasts, and such an usher only costs money. On Monday, December 9, we obtained... 

Read More "Threatened theatre directors speaking: 'It literally hurts me when I hear that something like this is going to be abolished.'

Open letter from theatre directors: 'Spectators want human contact'

Over the past year, we, Annemiek Lely and Susanne Visser, heard various noises about boring introductions and useless fringe programmes that would add nothing. Such comments pass the revue in the artist foyer, at the bar or find their way onto social media. 'I want after-shows led by a local presentation talent instead of a drawling dramaturge,' wrote an already established director 

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Musicians in plastic and a rock-hard snare drum - Forty years of orchestra de ereprijs celebrated with 4 new compositions - one for each decade

As an intro, the percussionist of orchestra the prize of honour played a cadenza of air beats. When he unexpectedly gave a cutting blow on his snare drum, everyone was startled. Thus, with Bewegung ohne Bewegung for cello and ensemble by Jan van de Putte, opened the anniversary concert of the ensemble founded in 1979 by Wim Boerman. Last year,... 

Read More "Musicians in plastic and a rock-hard snare drum - Forty years of orchestra de ereprijs celebrated with 4 new compositions - one for each decade

Open your eyes, watch and reflect, engage in conversation. Opening IDFA 2019 showcases the sublime extremes of documentary.

The 32nd edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam has opened with Sunless Shadows. Confessions of young women jailed for complicity in the murder of their father or other man in the family grow into a haunting statement about oppressed women in a male-dominated society. The only Dutch film in the international competition is Rotjochies by Maasja Ooms.

'Once you become suspicious, you develop more and more anxiety' - Meriç Artaç addresses fear and mistrust in her chamber opera Madam Koo

'A new piece is usually only heard once, then it disappears into a drawer forever.' Such a sigh I often hear, in all tones. Not only from composers, but also from ensembles, concert organisers, musicians and even subsidy providers. Good news, then, that Meriç Artaç's opera Madam Koo will be repeated twice this month, Wednesday 11 December in CC... 

Read More "'Once you become suspicious, you develop more and more anxiety' - Meriç Artaç addresses fear and mistrust in her chamber opera Madam Koo

How the miracle doctor fell into oblivion - and why writer Rinus Spruit hopes for rehabilitation

He brought hypnosis and psychotherapy as treatment methods to the Netherlands and had a thriving practice with the well-known writer Frederik van Eeden. But mention the name Albert Willem van Renterghem, and (almost) nobody will ring a bell. With his book De wonderdokter, compiler Rinus Spruit hopes to restore honour. Albert Willem van Renterghem (1845-1939) was once considered "the miracle doctor... 

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With sound. Honours for Marga Klompé; Action Tomato finally buried during commemoration.

The myth just had to end. Nan van Houte, former director of Amsterdam's small theatre Frascati, has buried Action Tomato. During Requiem for Tomato, on 4 November 2019, she made it crystal clear that this legendary event has been measured too big by our theatre historians. In 1969, when a few tomatoes were sent to the al... 

Read More "With sound. Honours for Marga Klompé; Action Tomato finally buried during commemoration.

Colleges have been left out of all discussions on education for far too long.

"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... 

Read More "Colleges have been left out of all discussions on education for far too long.

If no one comes up with a Plan B... 

On 23 October, website Theaterkrant.nl wrote a piece on the future of the performing arts. A future that is black and gloomy when you, as a creator, count on growth, or even survival at all. In short: so much money is going away from the Performing Arts Fund, that from next year only between 50 and 60 applications can be honoured, in... 

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Dutch youth film in dire straits too? Plenty to talk about during the Cinekid festival

The Cinekid youth film festival opens this week with Binti, a catchy, highly topical youth film brimming with optimism. That sounds good, because optimism is what the Dutch youth film can use right now. Too bad, then, that Binti, about a girl from Congo who does everything in her power to be allowed to stay in Belgium with her father, is a largely Belgian production.... 

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'Like a terrifying chorus of ghostly aliens.' Why you just have to suffer Anna Korsun in November Music.

'Anna Korsun stood head and shoulders above her peers with her surprising, introspective and communicative music.' I wrote that in 2014, when she won the Gaudeamus Award. 'We are definitely going to hear more from her,' I concluded, and since then the Ukrainian has more than fulfilled that promise. She has made a name for herself as a composer, pianist, vocalist, conductor and (co-)organiser of concert series.... 

Read More "'Like a terrifying chorus of ghostly aliens.' Why you just have to suffer Anna Korsun in November Music.

'I decided to make an unabashedly grand romantic gesture and blow people away' - Mathilde Wantenaar writes new piece for Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

Being creative on demand? That's impossible, you would think. Yet it is the reality for composers and artists who work on commission. Mathilde Wantenaar (1993) therefore got acute choice stress when the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra asked her for a new piece. She was just working on a commission from De Nationale Opera. 'I felt like a rabbit in the... 

Read More "'I decided to make an unabashedly grand romantic gesture and blow people away' - Mathilde Wantenaar writes new piece for Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

Walking Through The Walls: unique VR experience at the edge of the abyss, where dragons live.

Virtual Reality is taking off. On Friday 11 October at 15:00, you can experience the world premiere of the chilling Walking through the Walls, a totally immersive work made for the Oculus Go and MEZE AUDIO headset, together the most complete portable VR set available. The event takes place at Mediamatic in Amsterdam, in collaboration with Stichting... 

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