On Friday 10 February in Utrecht, the Nederlands Kamerkoor will kick off its concert series Sacred and Profane, based on Benjamin Britten's choral work of the same name. The programme also includes his popular cycle Hymn to St Cecilia, which he composed during World War II. The score was confiscated by the US Customs Service in 1942 because it allegedly contained codes that were dangerous to the state. The American fear of a...
Something with straight lines and planes and primary colours. We all get that far with De Stijl. But did you know that there was also Style music and that a mechanical figure danced to that, er, Style? Let's get things straight before the Mondrian to Dutch Design exhibition season begins. 1. Mondrian was not the big man of De Stijl Piet...
There are those, including in the arts, who still think the world has not changed for good. Who suspect that a vote for a culture-friendly party will at a stroke turn back the clock eight years. Those people will wake up after 15 March to a new world, even if the Netherlands has suddenly chosen whether or not...
Actress and cabaret performer Yora Rienstra (35) knows at first hand what depression can do to a person's life: her grandmother was manic-depressive. That is why she agreed when she was asked to perform in the solo show PAAZ, even though after seven years of cabaret she did not want to be on stage alone again. 'But I found Myrthe van der Meer's book...
'Many people find contemporary dance difficult. Especially performances by young makers who experiment and seek new ways. At the Moving Futures festival, everyone can discover how dance can touch you. We do this not only by showing good performances by young makers. We also offer activities around it, context programmes. By doing so, we give the audience tools to make a connection with...
Gerard de Kleijn is leaving on 1 February after six years as director at Museum Gouda. The flamboyant, eloquent and erudite director leaves behind a financially and artistically healthy Museum for his successor Marc de Beyer. De Kleijn made the museum more accessible to Gouda residents and art lovers from outside the historic city. In 2016, the museum attracted around 40,000...
Bart Rutten becomes the new artistic director of Utrecht's Centraal Museum Bart Who? Bart quite an important figure. Bart Rutten was the man behind some great blockbusters at Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum. That he is going to Utrecht after Malevich and Matisse says a lot about the good work of his predecessor Edwin Jacobs. It says even more...
Johan Gijsen has been elected Utrechter of the Year. The organiser of the Le Guess Who? Festival succeeds FC Utrecht owner Frans van Seumeren (2015) and athlete Dafne Schippers (2014). The election for Utrechter van het Jaar was held by the AD Utrechts Nieuwsblad. Six columnists selected ten nominees who could be voted for. Gijsen founded Le Guess Who? in 2007....
We Had Love, We Had Guns by Christine Otten is about black resistance fighter Robert F. Williams, who fought for black equality. In the theatre adaptation of the same name, white actors - including Huub van der Lubbe - play black characters and vice versa. Double talk about personal sacrifice, skin colour and connection. Idlewild It is a remarkable coincidence. America is taking...
Five art experiences will always stick to this bizarre year for me. And one thing really scared me. Whether the worst is now behind us? At least the most extraordinary is still on view until 5 February 2017. A chronological overview of what was unbelievable, unthinkable, inconceivable, unbelievable and perhaps untrue. Much of it, by the way, will be in 2017...
Each month, in the (Un)heard series, I present extraordinary sound that does not go unnoticed and unsung. In this December edition: Brume, Cinema Perdu, Emanuele de Raymondi, Mark Fell, Zeno van den Broek and James O'Callaghan. Like a vise around the neck Brume - Mother Blast (LP, Grautag) Nicolas Moulin's Grautag label guarantees dystopian soundscapes. Those landscapes the label presents...
From 6 December, theatre Kikker will show a week-long anthology of talented and diverse young theatre makers. We looked ahead to this Winter Collection. Hannah Roelofs, herself just over 30, issues five warnings for people over 29. 1. Twenty-somethings! 'This is the generation that's losing his or her...
'What is the relevance of dance?' Since the The Relevance of Dance conference in March 2016, this question has been haunting my mind. Above all, I want to know why more people should dance. Therefore, I decide to put the question to inspiring and progressive dance teachers. The second one I question is Andrew Greenwood, who six months ago...
Until 31 December, classical music lovers can browse the unprecedented amount of sheet music, CDs and music books at Broekmans & van Poppel. The iconic shop, stately located next to Brasserie Keyzer and the Concertgebouw on the Van Baerlestraat in Amsterdam, will close its doors after 102 years. The family-run business will continue in Badhoevedorp, where the central warehouse is already...
The Belgenmonument in Amersfoort is the largest war memorial in the Netherlands. Construction started a hundred years ago. It was recently restored, but no longer has a function. New meaning is being sought. Architecture centre FASadE organised a design competition for this purpose. The aim: to give the Belgenmonument renewed meaning as a memorial but also as a symbol for the reception of contemporary displaced persons. The jury led by...
It is around 11 o'clock on Sunday evening. Jlin taps a rattling beat in the air with her index fingers. When the relentlessly sucking bass kicks in, she accompanies it with an elbow down. Her grin from ear to ear is met with cheers from the audience. Le Guess Who? 2016 (hereafter LGW) is coming to an end, but that's what these...
I wrote this story in 2003, following the publication of a major historical study on theatre attendance. I return to it often, this research. Because it keeps me with both feet on the ground while screaming for culture. And because it underlines the need to overhaul the system anyway. 'Nothing so constant...
Festival Le Guess Who? in Utrecht is on the eve of its tenth edition. From 10 to 13 November, more than a hundred artists will take possession of every conceivable place in the city of Dom where you can perform with good grace. They come from far and wide, just like the visitors. Expect the unexpected, with the whole family? Is that...
From 19 to 23 October, more than two thousand music professionals gathered in Santiago de Compostella for the 22nd World Music Expo (WOMEX). I was there and came back with mixed feelings. My first music fair experience was the WOMEX in Rotterdam. In 2001, the Maas city was the cultural capital of Europe and thus had extra resources at its disposal. The Berlin organiser of...
Once built for a Belgian dance bar, The Busy Drone came to the Netherlands in the 1960s. Publisher De Bezige Bij placed the barrel organ at its stand at the annual book fair in the RAI in 1968, which explains its striking name. Five years later, director Edy de Wilde purchased the instrument for his Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, where it remained until...
Zvizdal, the documentary theatre portrait of Pétro and Nadia filmed by Berlin between 2011 and 2016, is not only in Paris, Ghent and Athens. This moving story can also be seen in the Netherlands until 11 November 2016. Near the place where an atomic experiment failed in 1986, Berlin and Zvizdal tell a moving story about an old peasant couple. They remained as...
Theatre group Aluin celebrates its 25th anniversary. The company, which originated at the Utrecht acting school, celebrated at the place where it all started: Utrecht's Theatercafé De Bastaard. On Sunday 23 October, they reprised their first ever performance, a play entitled 'It', based on the novella The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James. About a man who thinks he is destined...
Among all the great titles vying for attention, debuts are often overlooked. Each month, in the series The Debut, A Quattro Mani discusses a notable debut novel of recent times. On your own two feet You are eighteen, nineteen and moving out of the house, studying. The world is at your feet, freedom beckons, your promising dreams are about...
While things are rumbling in the Amsterdam dance and performance world due to a total lack of solid support for development and experimentation (see Alarm Letter), choreographer Ola Maciejewska is showing the impressive Bombyx Mori at Veem House of Performance this weekend. Maciejewska is a fine example of a talented maker who has taken refuge elsewhere because of the crumbling art climate in the Netherlands. After...
'What is the relevance of dance?' Since the conference The Relevance of Dance in March 2016, this question has been haunting my mind. That weekend, the main topic of discussion was the relevance of dance as a performing art to watch. An approach that left me unsatisfied, because my main interest myself is to know what the relevance of dance as an activity...
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