Category Archives: music

God en Duivel spelen een spelletje met de mens – Vliegende Hollander van Holland Opera: een lust voor oog en oor

Posted on August 22, 2020 by Thea Derks

De tribune van de Veerensmederij in Amersfoort beslaat de hele zijwand van deze thuisbasis van Holland Opera. Bij elk van de ver uit elkaar geplaatste zitjes staat een flesje champagne met twee glazen. Een man (bij navraag blijkt hij de … Continue reading →

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Three power girls found the Iranian Female Composers Association: ‘We want to provide a home worldwide’

Posted on August 21, 2020 by Thea Derks

In 1979 Iran changed from a modern, pro-Western secular state to a spiritual dictatorship when Islamic leaders grabbed the power and enforced the sharia. From then on women had to be veiled, and music was forbidden as extremely sinful. Four … Continue reading →

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3e druk #Reinbertbio is te koop! Naast Slotakkoord: Reinbert de Leeuw 2014-2020

Posted on July 3, 2020 by Thea Derks

Eindelijk is hij er dan: de derde druk van mijn #Reinbertbio. Op 30 juni ontving ik dit heuglijke bericht van mijn uitgever. Meteen diezelfde dag verschenen er op Twitter foto’s van mensen die het boek al in huis hadden via … Continue reading →

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#Corona-classics 3: Hannes Minnaar plays Bach & Manneke

Posted on June 25, 2020 by Thea Derks

Hannes Minnaar is in luck. His #corona tour with Bach’s Goldberg Variations starts on July 1, the exact day when the maximum of a hundred visitors per concert is released. – Provided the concertgoers keep a distance of 1.5 meters … Continue reading →

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Piano Quintet Amy Beach streamed with a view of Scheveningen beach

Posted on June 6, 2020 by Thea Derks

Hooray, since the beginning of this month we can finally visit the theatre, the movies or a concert again! – Oops, I cheered too early. No hall can make a living from a maximum of 30 visitors, so a lot … Continue reading →

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#Corona-classics 2: Maxim Shalygin: growling & screeching saxophones on CD ‘Todos los fuegos el fuego’

Posted on May 27, 2020 by Thea Derks

A rainy day in #corona quarantine seems the ideal moment to listen to a CD about fire. So I slide Todos los fuegos el fuego by the Ukrainian-Dutch composer Maxim Shalygin into my laptop. ‘All fires the fire’ is named … Continue reading →

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Liza Lim: unsettling soundworld on cd Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Thea Derks

Listening to the cd dedicated to the Australian composer Liza Lim (1966) that was recently released by Kairos, one can’t help but evaluate it in the context of the corona-pandemic that is currently keeping the world hostage. Are we headed … Continue reading →

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Mathilde Wantenaar on her new opera A Song for the Moon: ‘With music you can achieve anything’

Posted on April 21, 2020 by Thea Derks

In 2013 Mathilde Wantenaar (Amsterdam, 1993) participated in the project Boom|Amsterdam is an opera, two years later she wrote the mini-opera Personar for the first edition of the Opera Forward Festival. In March her family opera Een lied voor de … Continue reading →

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Composer Daníel Bjarnason: ‘Surrounded by people you may still be utterly alone’

Posted on April 14, 2020 by Thea Derks

On 14 April the Irish Crash Ensemble was to play the Dutch premiere of Songs by the Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason. The cycle was commissioned by Muziekgebouw Eindhoven and Concertgebouw Amsterdam, where it would be repeated on April 15. Both … Continue reading →

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Composer Karin Rehnqvist: ‘I simply had to address global warming in Silent Earth’

Posted on April 3, 2020 by Thea Derks

Saturday 18 April 2020 was to see the first performance of Karin Rehnqvist’s Silent Earth in NTR ZaterdagMatinee. Yet, as all concerts, this premiere fell prey to the measures taken to prevent the further spreading of the Corona-virus. Rehnqvist had … Continue reading →

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