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Asko|Schönberg

Asko|Schönberg: Two world premieres at Cello Biennale

Asko|Schönberg presents two new compositions at the Cello Biennale. Commissioned by Asko|Schönberg, innovative composer Silvia Borzelli creates new work with earthbound that breaks the traditional coordination between left and right hands. Composer Guus Janssen is commissioned by the Cello Biennale to write a new composition for ensemble and four cellists. In addition to these two new works, the ensemble will play the classic Biennale Galop 2016 by... 

Asko|Schönberg presents The State and reflections on it

i.c.w. Gaudeamus Festival, Musica festival Strasbourg and Ensemble Klang, 4 Sep to 25 Nov Asko|Schönberg opens the coming season with De Staat, a programme with and around Louis Andriessen's iconic masterpiece of the same name. This politically charged work is paired with a brand new composition by Oscar Bettison, who once studied with Andriessen and is our Composer in Residence this season. A... 

Asko|Schönberg in Holland Festival: Mutability

World premiere Sunday 23 June Wandering in the music as among the trees of a forest. Intimate, vast and awe-inspiring at the same time. Twelve miniatures in the form of solo instruments come your way. They reflect musical characters, as changeable as life itself. Pioneering multimedia work For Mutability, composer Yannis Kyriakides asked 12 other composers to write two- to three-minute miniatures. Some of... 

pr image asko|schönberg

Asko|Schönberg in the Day of the Composer: Night Shift, the audience as co-maker and player

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... 

Credit Irakli Chelidze, Giorgi Nakashidze

Kordz x Sakamoto: Festive tribute to (film) composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (23 March - Muziekgebouw)

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... 

scene photo rhapsody © Kurt Van der Elst,

Josse de Pauw and Asko|Schönberg bring heaven a little closer

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... 

© Kurt Van der Elst, scene photo Rhapsody

Dutch premiere Rhapsody - The musicality of grinding minds

LOD muziekktheater in coproduction with Asko|Schönberg23/11 Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw26/11 Breda, Chassé Theatert/m 22/2 diversie theatres in Belgium Belgian actor Josse De Pauw and composer Frederik Neyrinck are inspired by Wim Kayzer's television series Van de schoonheid en de troost. 'Tell me what makes this life worth living' is how Wim Kayzer opened the conversation with artists, scientists and philosophers in his legendary television series Van de... 

Jamszoo, photo by Marcel Veldman

'Blind' for non-existent soloist and ensemble - Asko|Schönberg, Slagwerk Den Haag & Jameszoo - Premiere 4 Oct, tour until 9 Nov

Jameszoo wanted to disappear from his music. That failed completely, he tells himself. But what a glorious failure. He developed an instrument that is not only self-playing, but also improvises and communicates with musicians playing live. They let the non-existent soloist challenge them to unpredictable musical playing. Electroacoustic wrestling Asko|Schönberg and Slagwerk Den Haag enter into a collaboration ... 

Ernestine Stoop - image provided by Asko|Schönberg

Stairway to Music - Scala for Ernestine - Saturday 27 May

Stairway to Music, a programme by Asko|Schönberg and the Muziekgebouw, is an intimate listening experience of about 45 minutes on the steps of the Muziekgebouw. This time the program also has a personal touch. Harpist Ernestine Stoop says goodbye to Asko|Schönberg after more than 40 years and has put together a concert in which she condenses her time with Asko|Schönberg... 

Asko Schönberg, Photographer Milagro Elstak

Treasury György Kurtág on 16 February - the perfect prelude to the Kurtág Festival

In the Schatkamer series, Asko|Schönberg takes you on a journey to the pearls of 20th-century music through live-played music, captivating guest speakers and visual and sound clips. The edition of Treasure Room on Thursday 16 February highlights the extraordinary world of György Kurtág (1926), the Hungarian composer known as the master of miniatures. His pieces consist of short,... 

Asko|Schönberg in duotone sidelight, photo by Tom ten Seldam

Focus on Northern European composers in the ZaterdagMatinee: Tuning the ears with Bas Wiegers

With a circle of familiars - Bas Wiegers, Slagwerk Den Haag, Ensemble Klang and Katrien Baerts - Asko|Schönberg works on the music of the future. This is done from a rich basis formed by our 20th-century heritage. We connect the music of these composers with the new generation. In this case, the Dutch Wilbert Bulsink, the Estonian Helena Tulve... 

Asko|Schönberg brings Islands: Premiere - Richard Ayres ism artist duo Nest

On 8 December, Asko|Schönberg will premiere Islands, the latest work by composer Richard Ayres. Together with artist duo Nest, Ayres creates ten imaginary islands, merging live music, electronics, visual art, photography, video and performance. 'One of today's most idiosyncratic and original composers. The only predictable thing about his premieres is that they are unpredictable'. - The Times 

Van Binsbergen brings shimmering South African story in sound and language #novembermusic

A trombone blaring like an elephant, violins like imploring songbirds and an oboe rippling a scale like a brook: so opens A Skin of Sound, a performance featuring winds, string instruments, percussion, a South African poet and a pop singer. With bated breath, dozens of visitors in the Great Hall of the Bossche Verkadefabriek listened to the premiere of this shimmering piece.... 

The Hague Connection: premieres, Hague masters & young talent

Thu 10 Nov, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ / Sat 12 Nov, November Music Asko|Schönberg maintains warm ties with the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. It is a breeding ground for many composers who have since earned their spurs, such as Michel van der Aa, Martijn Padding and Peter Adriaansz, but also for a whole new batch of young, talented makers such as Petra Strahovnik,... 

A Skin of Sound: Composition by Corrie van Binsbergen to the powerful poetry of Antjie Krog by Asko|Schönberg, Vuma Levin Trio, Beatrice van der Poel

When composer/guitarist Corrie van Binsbergen heard South African poet Antjie Krog recite her own poem a few years ago, she was floored. She was overwhelmed by the sound, that diction, that timbre of South African. Van Binsbergen has been working with writers and poets since 2003. Literature and poetry are a great source of inspiration for her.... 

Asko|Schönberg at opening night Sydney Festival with opera Antarctica

After a successful premiere at the Holland Festival, Asko|Schönberg will bring Australian composer Mary Finsterer's opera Antarctica to the internationally renowned Sydney Festival in Australia. Antarctica will play during the opening night on 5 January 2023 and three more times after. Asko|Schönberg will also play a concert at the Sydney Opera House during the festival on 9 January, with Dutch composers... 

Asko|Schönberg in Gaudeamus Opening night and concert in honour of Reinbert de Leeuw in Muziekgebouw

Gaudeamus 2022 Opening Festival Energising programme with a.o. sheng grandmaster Wu Wei During the opening night of this annual festival, Gaudeamus shows the many faces of new music: surprising, moving and who knows, frustrating. Asko|Schönberg, a regular guest at this festival, is part of the festive opening night and presents a programme that spans generations and continents. Including the wacky... 

Asko|Schönberg opens 2022/2023 season with festival Words & Music

After the successful first edition in 2020, Asko|Schönberg presents Words & Music, a festival full of cut-ups & f*ck-ups, on 3 September. In unexpected ways, various art disciplines come together in an adventurous programme that plays with the relationships between music and language. This time, Words & Music is inspired by composer Luciano Berio (1926-2003) and literary enfant terrible of the sixties.... 

Asko | Schönberg performs Small World - Grachtenfestival 13 and 14 August - premiere  

Small World is a colourful film symphony about a mouse that moves right through the music. Composer Camiel Jansen wrote the piece especially for Asko|Schönberg and the Grachtenfestival, where it will be premiered. In viewing and listening spectacle Small World, we follow a mouse that moves through the big world and experiences increasingly wild adventures. The music, played live... 

ANTARCTICA - at the Holland Festival : World premiere of an opera about the mysterious continent on 5 and 6 June

Asko|Schönberg premieres Mary Finsterer's new opera at the Holland Festival. Antarctica takes us into the mysterious world of the southern continent. A multidisciplinary performance in which the Australian composer links historical, mythical and scientific images and stories about Antarctica. In doing so, she uses an enchanting combination of musical elements from old and new styles.... 

Asko|Schönberg concert and performances in May 

The Underground NITE, 5 to 22 May; Chilling Nature Pictures Saturday matinee, 14 May The Underground The Underground is a gritty, witty and tragic performance by director Guy Weizman and the NITE ensemble (NNT, Club Guy & Roni, Asko|Schönberg, Slagwerk Den Haag). The performance is inspired by Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky; a monologue by a man who has suffered many blows... 

Asko|Schönberg opens cultural season 2022/2023 with festival Words & Music

  cut-ups & fuck-ups, Berio & Burroughs Saturday 3 September With Words & Music, Asko|Schönberg serves you an afternoon and evening full of cut-ups & fuck-ups. A rush of sensations; fantastic, grim, absurd, disruptive and with humour. A festival full of cut-up, cut-up and brand-new performances, installations, film and more, inspired by the cut-up techniques of composer Berio and writer Burroughs. After the... 

Stairway to Music: Double Dutch | World premiere Robin de Raaff

Saturday 23 April, 2.15pm and 4pm: Stairway to Music by Asko|Schönberg and the Muziekgebouw is an intimate 40-minute listening experience on the steps of Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. Stairway to Music is inspired by a story told at the farewell gathering of conductor/pianist Reinbert de Leeuw, who died in 2020. When Reinbert played the piano in his flat, people would take... 

Asko|Schönberg presents overview of programmes first half new season

The programming for next season is largely known and ticket sales have started. Below is the overview of the programmes from September to December 2022. Asko|Schönberg opens season 2022/2023 on Saturday 3 September with festival Words & Music, a day full of cut-ups and fuck-ups inspired by Berio and Burroughs. Also many new works by Richard Ayres, Jan van de Putte, Arnold... 

I have missed you forever - 0pera Forward Festival, premiere 12 to 18 March

What does it mean to make opera as a collective? And what does it mean to do so in an inclusive way? In collaboration with De Nationale Opera, Asko|Schönberg is freeing up space for experimentation, both on stage and in the rehearsal studio. That space is for research into new forms of work with a collective character. From this collaboration comes in the... 

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