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Culture outside the Randstad: Amersfoort's struggle

Displaced paintings by Armando. Artists fleeing the city. A tinpot that brought financial disaster and summer festivals that attract tens of thousands of visitors every year. And you thought Amersfoort was boring? A footnote along the A1 motorway? Forget it. Let me tell you about this city struggling with its cultural identity. A story in eighteen impressions. Guilty landscape In his youth... 

The Britten Youth String Orchestra is 10 years old. Conductor Loes Visser: 'I'm still learning every day'

Already during her studies, Loes Visser (1959) formed the Alpha Chamber Orchestra. In 1990, she initiated the Adamello Ensemble and, seventeen years later, she founded the Britten Youth String Orchestra, with which she is now celebrating its second anniversary. What drives her and what are her best experiences? Chamber orchestra "I founded the Alpha Chamber Orchestra because there was a need",... 

Director Krzysztov Warlikowski: 'I look at Wozzeck through his son's eyes'

'The smaller the community the narrower the mind,' says Krzysztof Warlikowski. The Polish director makes his debut at De Nationale Opera this month with Alban Berg's Wozzeck. It is the second time he has taken on this iconic work of the 20th century. To this end, he draws on his own experiences during his childhood in Stettin. It is exceptionally... 

How fuss in theatre can lead to intercultural dialogue

A dance performance for youth (6+) recently caused a stir. Pupils from groups 5 to 8 of the Islamic Aboe Daoedschool in Utrecht visited IJspaleis (6+) by dance theatre group plan d-. At a dance of two penguins in love, one of the teachers requested that the performance be stopped. This scene was not considered suitable for the pupils, the explanation said. It... 

Geert Viaene: 'Poetry is like a drug, I can't live without it'

He was belatedly gripped by poetry, but how: for Flemish poet and street musician Geert Viaene (1963), poetry has now become a condition of life. 'A chord has been struck that still can't stop vibrating.' From this late bloomer, who published on digital forum Het Gezeefde Gedicht (The Sifted Poem), the debut collection Eistijden was recently published. Viaene understands the art of being outspoken in... 

Are we still capable of having a real opinion?

I read the biography of Jacob Israel De Haan, Onrust, by Jan Fontijn. Writer and director Gerardjan Rijnders based Salaam Jerusalem on this biography. It is this play, performed by De Nieuw Amsterdam, that really makes me realise how urgent it is to let such an almost forgotten figure as De Haan speak. Jacob Israel De Haan overturned taboos, fought... 

When you lose a sibling. On the grief of 'forgotten grief'

My father died in 1997. He came from a family of 10 children, five of whom have since died. My aunt Minke wrote a book about it: Broederziel alleen? The book stirred up a lot of emotions and had eight reprints in a short time. Grief for a deceased sibling turned out to be forgotten grief. In English, mourners are forgotten... 

Ønskelandet bursts open in Aarhus, European Capital of Culture 2017

Kids are in the front seat this year. Director Rebecca Matthews and programme director Juliana Engberg have said so themselves (see here and here). Children have a creativity and spontaneity that adults could learn from, and that deserves its own place in the year that Aarhus is European Capital of Culture. Or: in Aarhus 2017, as the 'locals' say. Children also deserve a... 

'When my father died, I seemed serene. Later it turned out I was very angry.'

Auke Hulst (1975) grew up more or less unaccompanied by adults with a brother and two sisters in the hamlet of Denmark in Groningen, on top of the Slochteren gas bubble. His childhood in a Pippi Longstocking house in a forest was the model for his third novel Children of the Rugged Land (2012). And I Remember Titus Broederland is his... 

Tjeerd Posthuma: 'Millennials can take disappointment very badly.'

Tjeerd Posthuma: 'Millennials, people of my generation, can handle disappointments very badly. I wanted to write a book about a little boy who had a lot going on in his life and was already coping badly with setbacks at a fairly young age. That idea evolved into the perspective of his older sister, who is jealous of her little brother but who herself is not so... 

Astrid Lindgren always remained that girl from Näs

During her lifetime, Astrid Lindgren received almost seventy-five thousand letters from fans all over the world. The creator of headstrong characters such as Pippi Longstocking, the Lionheart Brothers and Ronja the Robber's Daughter was at least as headstrong herself. This is clear from the voluminous biography This Day, One Life. Back to Näs, where Astrid Lindgren grew up and still lives on. Playing, playing, playing... 

These five shows you really want to see in December

I tell you here why you should go to see Parsifal, and not even just because of the object by Anish Kapoor that plays a part in it. And you could also go to theatre one day, by the way. With The Girls. Fel theatre by our very best theatre company (according to Americans). The National Opera, Parsifal (opera) Four years ago, I attended Pierre Audi's... 

The Harvest of the Month: Grandes, Hulst, Otten, Smith, Winterson, Noorduijn and Vanden Bosch, Van Mersbergen and Van Zomeren

The cost of crisis Small heroes is the title of the new novel by Almudena Grandes, one of Spain's greatest writers. And little heroes it is all about: the novel is actually a collection of interrelated stories about people like all of us, only these people all live in Madrid. Rich and poor, young... 

Jan Terlouw: 'We are digging holes on Mars. And clean energy can't?'

He wrote more than twenty-five books, half of them for young people, but actually Jan Terlouw did not want to write at all. He was a mathematician and physicist, did nuclear fusion research and later became a politician - that was more than enough. Besides, writing right-handed (as it was taught in school) was torture for someone who is left-handed. It had then... 

Theologian wants more constructive swearing

Isn't there enough anger and aggression in our world yet? You would think so, yet Rikko Voorberg (36)[hints]Theologian Rikko Voorberg (1980) is founder of the PopUpKerk, organises art installations and is a publicist; he is a guest correspondent on Anger at De Correspondent and has a regular column in the Nederlands Dagblad. He started the PopUpKerk at the invitation of the... 

Photographer enchants Voorschoten with illuminated images in Lichtjuweel

Magic cannot be grasped. Certainly not such a short and fabulous moment as twilight, when the day turns into evening so quickly and the lights go back on. It is precisely this elusive, short 'magic hour' that photographer Jan van der Horn (1951) tries to capture in his staged photographs. The magic pictures he takes light up from 11 November (St Martin's Day) until... 

Herta Müller: 'I like small things'

This week saw the publication of Nobel laureate Herta Müller's autobiography, My homeland, an apple stone. A few years ago, A Quattro Mani had an exclusive interview with the Romanian writer, when her first collection of poetry collages was published, The Skirt-chaser and its sly aunt. We spoke to her at her home in Berlin, she revealed how her poetry collages are created, and the making... 

Ronald Wintjens. Photo: Tycho Merijn Roest

Ronald Wintjens: 'More face for youth dance and performance art at Dance Days'

'Not only work has disappeared, but also knowledge and craft - the whole perspective is disappearing. While the Netherlands as a dance country was renowned in the world precisely because it had the luxury to research, to build, to stimulate.' Ronald Wintjes, the brand-new director of De Nederlandse Dansdagen, worries. What about the future of dance?.... 

Herman Brusselmans: 'In my head I am not a bourgeois dick'

With an average of two novels a year, the Flemish writer has built up a huge and unique body of work in over thirty-five years - he turns 63 this week, but the number of books he has written far exceeds that number. Interview with the man who writes faster than his shadow, in ten quiz questions. 'Well, I don't appear to be a connoisseur of my own work, do I?'

Five legendary shows you must see in September

September, the month of the Dutch Theatre Festival and the Fringe Festival full of old and new performances you must see. But a lot is also happening in the rest of the country at the start of the new theatre season. Five must-sees. Toneelgroep Maastricht, Eyes wide shut (theatre) 'The new Shakespeare' he has been called, I already called him 'devil's advocate'. Fact... 

Catherine Millet: 'As soon as something is on paper, I am relieved of it'

Her book The Sexual Life of Catherine M. took the world by surprise and made her world-famous overnight. Since then, Catherine Millet has been one of France's most widely read writers. In her most recent novel A Dream Life, she returns to her childhood in Bois-Colombes. A Quattro Mani went with her to the seeds of her authorship. Back to... 

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