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Violinist Vadim Repin: 'The score is our bible!'

At five, he started playing the violin, and after only six months he gave his first performance. At 17, he was the youngest participant ever to win the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition. In 2002, Vadim Repin, born in Novosibirsk in 1971, played at Willem-Alexander and Máxima's wedding concert, together with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Three years ago, Repin started his own... 

Kaija Saariaho on her new opera: "Peter Sellars is not appreciated"

Huge, deep black shadows fall on a backdrop of calligraphic foliage in every conceivable shade of grey. Director Peter Sellars intently follows the movements of the three main characters during a run-through of 'Feather Mantle' at De Nationale Opera. Together with 'Always Strong', this short opera forms the double-bill Only the Sound Remains by Kaija Saariaho with which 15 March's Opera Forward Festival... 

Fragment of diptych by Nicholas Hlobo (photo author)

'Frankenstein' Hlobo wants to cure South Africa

Scattered through the main hall of museum Beelden aan Zee in The Hague are enormous works, mostly consisting of ribbon and used car inner tubes. There are also canvases hanging on the wall, again full of colourful ribbon embroidery. These canvases are more sculpture than painting. They are the work of South African Nicholas Hlobo. Images by the Sea, under the title Imilonji Yembali (Melodies... 

Stefan Hertmans: 'Poetry is my way of digesting the world'

The Flemish author Stefan Hertmans (1951) is best known in the Netherlands as a novelist, especially since he won the AKO Literature Prize and the Gouden Boekenuil Publieksprijs with his beautiful autobiographical novel Oorlog en terpentijn (War and turpentine). But besides being a writer of novels, collections of short stories, essays and theatre texts, Hertmans is above all a poet. He wrote the Poetry Gift for the upcoming Poetry Week, which starts at the end of January.... 

Topcollectie Spaanse meesters eindelijk in Nederland

De man heeft de blik naar boven gericht. Hij kijkt verbaasd. Waarom hangt hij nu hier? Hier, in Amsterdam? Hij komt toch uit Spanje? Vervolgens hing hij jarenlang in St. Petersburg. Deze zaal, net zo diep rood en imponerend groot als de ‘’Spanish Hall’’ in de Hermitage, lijkt trouwens verdraaid veel op de zaal waar hij zo lang hing. Overigens… 

A weekend in Brussels: This is our culture too

‘Nou, als we niet heelhuids thuiskomen, weet dan dat we van jullie hielden,’ grapten we tegen onze familie vlak voordat we zaterdag naar Brussel vertrokken. We zouden daar een interview hebben met de Amerikaanse schrijver David Vann, en de dag erna een wandeling maken door Brussel in de voetsporen van de schrijfsters Charlotte en Emily Brontë. Er zou wel wat… 

Loïc Perela and Jan Martens: As a spectator, you are finally faced with a question again

As I wrote in my earlier article about the Nederlandse Dansdagen, choreographer Loïc Perela won this year's Nederlandse Dansdagen Maastricht Prize. It earned him 12,000 euros to put into his new project HASHTAG. The award has helped some previous winners on their way (Monique Duurvoort, Joost Vrouenraets, Erik Kaiel, Muhanad Rasheed, Joeri Dubbe,... 

DJ Eddy De Clercq: From 'Nichtenherrie' to Neerlands Export product

Eddy De Clercq, the Godfather of Dutch house and dance culture, wrote his autobiography, Let the Night Never End, together with Martijn Haas. A story about the birth of the DJ scene in the Low Countries, the rise of house music and nightlife with raging parties full of sex, dance, art, booze, swag and snuff. Against the backdrop of the advancing... 

Architecture Film Festival: Raw concrete on the big screen

From confrontational brutalism to the flowing lines of Frank Gehry and from timeless London to the Paris of Eric Rohmer. Some of the selections from the Architecture film festival that starts on 8 October in Rotterdam. We take a dive into the programme in advance. In its existence, the AFFR has managed to hold its own against other thematic... 

Rik Wouters, Autumn, 1913, 135 x 140 cm, Oil on canvas, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp ©Lukasart in Flanders

Belgian colour on Dutch cheeks - 7 reasons why you should visit 'Colour Unleashed' soon

Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong time. Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in the period when modern art was born? Then I correct myself: no, there were many problems and uncertainties back then too. But the new exhibition Colour Unleashed at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag makes me hesitate again. Because the exhibited... 

Photo: Viktor Vassiliev

Russian Cherry Garden in Amsterdam: 5 important things learned #HF15

There was an air of more expensive perfume in the foyers than at a Dutch gala premiere. The women were younger and smoother, or had a better botox doctor than usual. The jewellery looked very expensive, as did the dresses. Russian sounded everywhere. It seemed as if Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg had been moved for a while to PC Hooftstraat, a few hundred metres away.... 

Flnr: Koen van Impe, Clara Cleymans and Waas Gramser of Comp Marius in Rotterdam, Figaro. Photo: Wijbrand Schaap

Brilliant actors in smooth comedy at Europe's biggest hangout

Europe's biggest hangout. That's the best way to describe the roof of that half-sunken car park in the heart of Rotterdam. Transformed fifteen years ago into the impression of a ship's deck, that 'Schouwburgplein' is now mostly owned by groups of skaters, vagrants, street urchins and other metropolitan troublemakers. Visitors to the Schouwburg usually rush without looking around too much to the... 

Tour de France with bow

For the sixth time in its history, the Tour de France will start in the Netherlands: on Saturday 4 July, the cyclists will start their three-week war of attrition under the Dom in Utrecht . A day earlier, the Britten Youth String Orchestra kicks off its own Tour de France, in home town Zwolle. In one week, the young musicians will give seven concerts in La... 

arie doeser op #cityt2cities

Sluit de wethouder op! 6 lessen van boekenfestival #City2Cities 2015

Alleen al vanwege het gebouw was literatuurfestival City2Cities een bezoek waard. Het Postkantoor op de Utrechtse Neude, in 1924 gebouwd als ode aan de vooruitgang in een stijl die het mooiste van de Amsterdamse School samenbracht, was immers al jaren dicht. Dus ook wie niet opgewonden raakt van Nick Cave en wie Michel Houellebecq een engerd vindt, had een reden… 

With the French stroke: Cappella Amsterdam sings Ton de Leeuw

Ton de Leeuw lived in Paris for the last decade of his life and studied with Olivier Messiaen in his younger years. On 21 May, Cappella Amsterdam will present four of his French-language choral works in the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. The programme also includes works by his student and friend Daan Manneke and the young French composer Laurent Durupt.... 

Encounters with Matisse at successful exhibition at Stedelijk

With 'The oasis of Matisse', the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has put on a magnificent exhibition. Sixty years after there was last a major retrospective of Matisse in the Netherlands, his work is back on display in all its glory. So alongside 'Late Rembrandt' at the Rijksmuseum, there is another blockbuster in the capital. The thousands of visitors who attended the... 

The five shows you must see in February

#1 Salzburger Festspiele / Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz / Katie Mitchell, The forbidden zone (toneel/performance) – Nederlandse première 11 februari, Stadsschouwburg AmsterdamDe Britse regisseur Katie Mitchell is deze maand de ‘brandstichter’ in de Amsterdamse Stadsschouwburg. Met voorstellingen die even sprankelend als grensoverschrijdend zijn. The forbidden zone gaat over gebieden die lang verboden terrein waren voor vrouwen: wetenschap en oorlog. De voorstelling volgt twee vrouwen… 

From world politics to the most intimate story: in search of what touches at Writers Unlimited '15

Writers Unlimited's Friday night kicked off with an Islam debate. In no uncertain terms, religious historian Karen Armstrong argued that Islam and jihad are not the same thing. There are only 41 jihads in the entire Quran, most of which are the peaceful struggle to help the poor when one is destitute oneself. But after the Paris attacks... 

Karl Ove Knausgard opens Writers Unlimited with strong appeal to individualism #wu15

“Iedereen die schrijft zal vroeg of laat tegen een muur aanlopen, een grens van wat niet kan, mag en moet worden geschreven. En vrijwel iedereen zal op dat moment terugschrikken en ervan afzien om het te schrijven. Want die muur staat er om ons te beschermen tegen wat we niet willen.” http://youtu.be/P7T0MMfEihI Karl Ove Knausgård, door sommigen al vergeleken met Marcel… 

We had coffee with the uncrowned king of Iranian war photography

Moshen Rastani (1958) grijnst breed, kijkt me indringend aan, gebaart, en legt zijn hand op zijn hart. "Wat er nu gebeurt, hier, tussen jou en mij, in dit gesprek. Dáár gaat het me om. We ontmoeten elkaar van mens tot mens. We communiceren. Via elkaars gezicht kunnen we de geheime wereld van de ander bezoeken. Zo’n camera is slechts een stuk gereedschap om dat contact voor elkaar te krijgen."
Rastani werd door het uitbreken van de Irak-Iranoorlog de fotografie in geslingerd. Hij ontpopte zich me...

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Zwarte dag voor onafhankelijke journalistiek

Ik ben in shock: twaalf doden bij gruwelijke aanslag op Frans satirisch tijdschrift Charlie Hebdo. – Vlak voor de aanslag twitterde het zijn nieuwste cartoon: een spotprent waarop de leider van IS een nieuwjaarswens uitspreekt. Humor verbindt, humor verbroedert, humor helpt taboes doorbreken, humor relativeert pijnlijke levensthema’s…. Althans, dat heb ik mijn leven lang gedacht, tot in 2005 mijn wereldbeeld kantelde.… 

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