Where minister Bussemaker tries to sell the same overall budget as "an extra investment of 18 million" with the new "cash shift" and municipalities like Amsterdam use the old-fashioned cheese slicer to make cuts, the municipality of Enschede uses the blunt axe. Despite fierce opposition and 27,000 signatures from concerned citizens, the city council agreed to an additional annual cut of 600,000 on the library and...
What happened to the five million Overijssel gave the orchestra in 2011 to 'get more money from the market'? This was also what councillor Van Abbema wondered, and the answers the province gave her mostly raise more questions. What is abundantly clear is that the province wants to keep the orchestra no matter what and of no merger
THE Symphony Orchestra is as good as bankrupt. The 2014 figures show that. So it is total nonsense that responsible minister Jet Bussemaker reported in her answers to questions by MP Jacques Monasch less than a month ago that the orchestra was well within the own income norm of 21.5%. Not only did she already use incorrect figures in her answers, now...
Tonight, the Arnhem city council will take an important decision on the renovation of Musis Sacrum, the monumental concert hall located at a prominent point in the city. But the real news is not in what will be decided tonight, but in the far-reaching consequences. Musis Sacrum dates back to 1847 and is part of the cultural heritage. The venue complex is in dire need of refurbishment and with...
Maandag 18 mei 2015 wordt hij gecremeerd in Utrecht: Ton Hartsuiker, onvermoeibaar voorvechter van nieuwe muziek in ons land. De laatste jaren kwakkelde hij met zijn gezondheid, hij zou zijn 82e verjaardag net niet halen. Hij was actief als pianist, muziekpedagoog, conservatoriumdirecteur, bestuurder en radiopresentator. Ook na zijn pensionering in 1998 peinsde hij er niet over te stoppen met zijn…
Na alle ellende rond HET Symfonieorkest vormde de première van Orphée et Eurydice gisteravond (1 mei) in het Wilminktheater een verademing. Dwars tegen alle sores in realiseerde de Nederlandse Reisopera een zinderende voorstelling, die terecht beloond werd met een minutenlange ovatie. Met magische kleurvlakken, slowmotionbewegingen en mysterieus schimmenspel wekte regisseur Floris Visser het tijdloze liefdesdrama tot leven. Een must voor…
Everything comes together in Enschede. Revenue models that appear to be based on air, but are defended to the hilt by administrators. Jubilant reports on rising museum visits, but smaller museums are going under. Aldermen acting out of cultural interests, but then playing residents against each other to make draconian decisions. All this to disguise the ruins of Rutte I. A quick recap:...
HET Symfonieorkest's financial problems have not gone unnoticed. Regional newspaper Tubantia reported last Monday that PvdA MP Jacques Monasch had minister Jet Bussemaker (also PvdA) summoned to the Lower House. In that report, Monasch passes with seven-mile boots advice, applications and decisions that have already been made or are yet to come, and immediately reports that a symphony orchestra will continue beyond 2017...
What is already going on on a small scale in Groningen, Enschede, Zaltbommel, Amersfoort, Gorinchem and Vlaardingen, is threatening to happen nationwide as well: cultural institutions falling over while politicians look on helplessly. According to the Council for Culture, the situation is alarming: 'Institutions are draining their own funds, cultural funds are maintaining schemes by drawing on reserves. We therefore make the urgent...
The money at HET Symphony Orchestra has run out. Despite all the extra millions from the province and after years of writing off tons of general reserves, the end is in sight. And so the orchestra is scrapping concerts, will be seen less in theatres in Deventer and Zwolle, stops CD recordings and shuns any risky performances. To keep the...
Even before the Noord Nederlands Orkest's final chord has fully sounded out, the audience in a well-filled Theater Carré stands up as one to cheer on the cast of Bizet's Parelvissers. We are writing 24 February 2015 and this is one of the last performances of this austere but effective production by the Nationale Reisopera. Tonight, this...
In Amersfoort, one art hall is empty and one art hall is full. KAdE, only recently completed and already successful, was dismantled five years after opening and moved to another, even newer building, across the railway line. However, the city council does not appear to have been properly informed about the financial consequences of this move and is now stuck with and noose of at least 10...
#1 Salzburger Festspiele / Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz / Katie Mitchell, The forbidden zone (theatre/performance) - Dutch premiere 11 February, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam British director Katie Mitchell is this month's 'arsonist' at Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg. With performances that are as scintillating as they are transgressive. The forbidden zone is about areas long off-limits to women: science and war. The...
Municipal cultural politics are often about 'bricks and mortar'. People put up a cultural building and then pray/hope that fantastic things will happen there, which the city council, in turn, has no money for/power over. Take Enschede. In a council meeting in which it was decided to reinvest in cultural bricks by means of a €475,000 loan, there was actually some unrest. No, not about those bricks, but about...
650,000 euros. The municipality of Enschede is prepared to lend that amount to HET Symfonieorkest. Not for a special cultural project in the city, no, for a renovation. Not surprising, since municipalities, after all, prefer to invest in bricks and mortar rather than culture. But in this case, we are talking about very special bricks. According to director Harm Mannak, the barely used bicycle shed needs to be converted into a...
After the annual lists, the recommendations for the new year. All dailies participate in it. Problem: much is not yet known. Festivals and companies present their programmes sometime in February, March. So we cannot yet give the tips for the whole of 2015. But we do have the tips for the coming month, in chronological order, because ranking performances we still have to...
Ten per cent fewer performances and ten per cent fewer visitors in Overijssel headlines RTV Oost. Bam! That chops it. Into the bin, that jubilant press release by Jet Bussemaker. And if there is one province that does not need to apologise to Halbe Zijlstra, it is Overijssel. Well, we reported earlier that apologies are not necessary anyway, but as a province...
Eerste verhaal. Een naakte koning kruipt aan de voeten van een vrouw. Ze is veel groter dan hij, een godin. Hoog boven hem houdt ze een tros druiven in haar hand. Honger heeft hij! Hij wil die druiven, allemaal. Zijn lijf is kwetsbaar. Het lijkt te rillen in de buitenlucht. Maar als het om het begeerde voedsel gaat, haalt hij…
Wijbrand Schaap: 'Now on the role of cities. One of the reactions on our site is about the role of the randstad in cultural policy. Melle Daamen puts the primacy in the randstad, and goes further than the council in this.' Joop Daalmeijer: 'The council has no position yet.' Wijbrand Schaap: 'But there is something in the Culture Outlook. Cities form...
Hoera! We hebben een nieuwe naam. Nederlands Symfonieorkest mocht niet, *****Orkest vond iedereen een lachertje en terugkeren naar de perfecte naam Orkest van het Oosten kan niet, want gezichtsverlies. Wat dan wel?
De afgelopen weken was het op academies in het hele land feest: een nieuwe lichting beeldend kunstenaars studeerde af en liet zich zien aan de wereld. Naast de ouders, opa en oma en enkele vrienden komen op zo’n eindexamenpresentatie ook een hoop kunstprofessionals af. Scouts, in de vorm van andere kunstenaars, pers, curatoren, verzamelaars en galeriehouders. Al die mensen hopen vooral niet de nieuwe ontdekking mis te lopen en proberen er daarom zo vroeg mogelijk bij te zijn. In sommige gevallen is dat al voordat de kunstenaar van de academie afstudeert. Ontplooit het talent zich niet zoals verwacht, is het jammer, maar anders ben je toch maar mooi de ontdekker. Wij doen even mee, en zochten er 22 uit.
Het nieuws: vandaag is het hot, morgen wordt de vis erin verpakt. In zijn video-opera The News geeft Jacob ter Veldhuis/JacobTV het een tweede leven door het in een nieuwe context te plaatsen. ‘Tegenwoordig is nieuws infotainment, gedompeld in sentiment.’ Komende vrijdag brengt de Dutch Travel Opera de première in het Wilminkteather in Enschede.
The main character of Bach's St John Passion? Jesus, of course. Wrong. It is the narrator, the evangelist, especially in Dale Duesing's wonderful staging, especially when interpreted by Robert Burt. Where in ordinary performances of the Johannes the evangelist's recitatives mainly interrupt the arias and choral passages, here they form the dramatic core. We truly see John's passion.
It was big news. One orchestra confiscates the instruments of another. Only it doesn't add up. Just as much does not appear to be right in conductor Jan Willem de Vriend's letter in last Thursday's Volkskrant.
Er dreigt beslag op de instrumenten van het voormalige Nederlands Symfonie Orkest. Het orkest, dat sinds een verloren juridische strijd met Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest het woord ‘Nederlands’ niet meer mag gebruiken, mag dus geen instrumenten verkopen of naar het buitenland meenemen. Hangende een tegenzet van het voormalige Orkest van het Oosten veranderde men daar de naam in ***** Symfonieorkest.
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