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Claron McFadden

Holland Festival celebrated the live arts in corona time

The 74th edition of the Holland Festival closed last weekend with the performances Transverse Orientation by Dimitris Papaioannou, Age of Rage by ITA-Ensemble and Pierrot Lunaire by Marlene Monteiro Freitas. The festival collaborated with two associate artists, Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and French-Austrian theatre maker Gisèle Vienne. Twenty-three companies played one hundred and eleven performances in twenty-five days. The festival presented seven world premieres and co-produced 11 international... 

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Dutch focus on November Music 2020: Ticket sales start Thursday 10 September

This year, November Music awards 10 commissions to Dutch and two to foreign composers, including a choral work for Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. Traditionally, November Music opens with the Bosch Requiem on Friday 6 November, which of course takes on an extra charge this year. Korean-Dutch composer Seung-Won Oh draws inspiration from the YeonDo death ritual that links Korean funeral traditions with the Catholic faith. After Kate Moore and Calliope Tsoupaki, she is the third female composer of the Bosch Requiem in a row.

Dutch focus on November Music 2020 

With a focus on the Dutch music scene, November Music aims to highlight the vitality and creativity of composers, creators and musicians during this 28th festival edition. Besides many new home-grown works, there are several concerts with leading roles for renowned foreign names. November Music 2020 takes place from 6 to 15 November at various locations in 's-Hertogenbosch with over 80 different concerts.... 

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Hilda Paredes immortalises African-American freedom fighter in her opera 'Harriet'

On 3 October, the opera Harriet by Hilda Paredes will premiere, dedicated to legendary African-American freedom fighter Harriet Tubman (c. 1822-1913). In the mid-19th century, she escaped from a slave existence, after which she risked her life to free many peers via the so-called Underground Railroad. After years of wrangling, the US Department of the Treasury decided in September 2018 to take Tubman's effigy and... 

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Geeks and mouse arms at the Muziekgebouw. The bar is high for @hollandfestival's new bosses

Then suddenly there is a very different audience in Amsterdam's Muziekgebouw aan het IJ. Gamers. Or rather developers. And hardcore new-music aficionados. 'I only come for Maze,' said my neighbour petulantly. He came for the music ensemble. Not for the games, that is, not for the computer graphics. And maybe not even for Claron McFadden. That famous, hyper-pliable opera singer who appeared in... 

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Guy Coolen on Operadagen Rotterdam: 'We call ourselves a bluff festival'

'If Mohammed doesn't come to the mountain, the mountain will come to Mohammed,' they thought at Operadagen Rotterdam. Earlier this year, the Enschede-based Nederlandse Reisopera gave a press presentation in Carré. This time, the Rotterdammers travelled to the capital. Artistic director Guy Coolen and dramaturge Tobias Kokkelmans told a select club of journalists what the audience could expect from 18-27 May,... 

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8 phenomena together on stage do not make phenomenal theatre at Theatre Festival Boulevard

Claron McFadden is a phenomenon. Josse de Pauw is a phenomenon. Arnon Grunberg is a phenomenon. LOD is a phenomenon. KVS is a phenomenon. Theatre Festival Boulevard is a phenomenon. I did not yet know pianist Kris Defoort, but he is also a phenomenon. As is Henry Purcell, but we've known that for a couple of centuries: also a phenomenon. After such an opening paragraph... 

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You won't want to miss these three operas by women during Operadagen Rotterdam

Friday 12 May kicks off the twelfth edition of Operadagen Rotterdam. Titled Lost & Found, the ten-day festival is dedicated to current refugee issues. I selected three operas by Calliope Tsoupaki, Annelies van Parys and Claron McFadden, strong women whose work deserves to be heard (and seen). The fear of the unknown is as old as the... 

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Cello Biennale full of highlights: 'Cellists are just nice people'

It no longer hums, buzzes, sings, saws and buzzes in the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. The cello caravan has left. The sixth edition of the Cello Biennale Amsterdam is over, leaving the thousands of cello and music fans with a feeling of emptiness. Nowhere else does such an amazing festival of cello take place in ten days, where the audience feels like... 

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New image for the King with some help from music & Ottolenghi

Majesty, Dear Willem Alexander, Last year at the Koningsdag concert, one of my favourite musicians played: violinist and composer Oene van Geel. On that occasion, his band zapp4 played together with a musician from my old world: recorder player Walter van Hauwe. In addition, surprising programming with David Kweksilber Big Band, leading lady Claron McFadden, tap dancer Peter Kuit and more. Great musicians... 

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Music missionary looks back: "That King's Day concert is indefinite!"

Yep, I'm running behind, because just now I finally saw (in parts) the King's Day concert! But hey, good music has no expiry date and for now this concert will be online for a while. What a party! Some of my favourite musicians participated. Faithful readers of Culture Press know that violinist and composer Oene van Geel is definitely one of them. He brought along Zapp4... 

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Dance, opera and the Large Hadron Collider: match made in heaven. Literally.

Miracles happen underground near Geneva. Or rather, those miracles happen every second around us, but underground at Geneva they are being recorded. In 2013, they discovered God, or at least, a gate of light that betrayed the existence of the Higgs boson, the most elementary particle of elementary particles, which provides mass to everything around us. On 18... 

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Two voices on Sunken Garden @HollandFestival part 2. Thea Derks: 'Guilt & penance before, after, with and in death'

Holland Festival Holland Festival

Amsterdam, 5-6-2013 - It is difficult to go uninhibited to a production that has already caused so much controversy as Sunken Garden by Michel van der Aa. This "first 3D opera" was slammed as "soporific" after its premiere at London's Barbican Theatre last April, but also hailed as "the future of opera".

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