This is a free service for all those who are trying to navigate the live (classical) music scene in the Netherlands. [Note: The Dutch easily use Holland instead of Netherlands, and won't get offended if you say Holland.] Nowadays I mainly get press tickets to review opera, international competitions, and music festivals. See my reviews. I write about the concert-going experience to get more people to go to concerts. If you have a concert you'd like me to consider attending and writing a review, please contact me directly. Editor, Le Bon Journal
Anticipation is half the fun. Time-challenged culture vultures (concert goers and connoisseurs of artistic indulgence) appreciate previews to help them decide on the right concert to attend. Listed below are events that are free or well worth attending. Linked below are programme notes I have compiled before the concert to help me make sense of what will be performed. I prepare these previews for the concerts in which I participate as a performer, composer, organiser, reviewer, or simply a member of the indulgent audience because I know somebody who is actively involved as a performer, composer, conductor, publicist, or organiser. Regretfully I am not always able to attend all concerts listed here.
If you would like to join my mailing list of selected concerts, please let me know who you are. If you would like to announce a forthcoming concert and invite me to attend, please e-mail me. Alternatively, check my events list which includes even more concerts not listed here! If you want to see me in concert, visit the Piano Guitar Duo site which contains concert dates throughout the Netherlands. Enjoy! ANNE
New blog about performances in the Netherlands and elsewhere: CONCERTBLOG
Last updated on 4 June 2009
August/Sept Early Music Festival, Utrecht
July European Cantat , Utrecht
Sunday 12 July 2009 at 15:00 (one hour) AMSTERDAM
21st century works for piano guitar duo
Composers will be present for this special programme
Funen Concerts Art Production, Amsterdam
8 euros reservations required
June Holland Festival, Amsterdam
Saturday 13 June 2009 Amsterdam 14:30 - 15:30 Euro 4 (includes coffee/tea)
Piano Guitar Duo: Rodrigo's guitar concerto for Segovia - Fantasia for a Gentleman
(complete)
No reservations required. Near Amsterdam RAI station
More information: address, map link, English programme notes
Saturday 6 June 2009 Amsterdam 15:30 - 17:00 FREE
'Silence' Concert on Harp by Dutch Music Award Winner (2006) Gwyneth Wentink
Haarlemmerdijk 137 Amsterdam
Attendance is free but please do reserve by email or phone :020-6240205
More info in Dutch.
Friday 29 May 2009 at 16:00 FREE
Panel discussion in English:
How can new music reach a broader audience? Is it just a question of marketing and publicity, or does the question run deeper?
University of Amsterdam more info
Saturday 25 April 2009 at 14:30 Utrecht FREE
Piano concert at Utrecht Conservatory,
Main concert hall, K&W Building,
Mariaplaats 27
Utrecht
Daniel Abrams, Opera for Piano: Variations on Ein Engel Leonora from Fidelio by Beethoven
Fantasia on Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischutz Alan Weiss
There is a place in Amsterdam, I think it's on Herengracht, a ground floor flat where I attended my first house concert in the Netherlands. The owners, a middle-aged Dutch couple, regularly organised house concerts under their double-height ceilings with their stackable chairs and grand piano. The late American composer and pianist Robert Avalon had invited me to that concert in which he had also performed. It was also the first house concert I attended with the Dutch guitarist Robert Bekkers, with whom I now have a piano guitar duo and a life together. We produced many house concerts in London in my compact Victorian cottage. This year (2006) we bought and restored a turn-of-the-century monument house next to a canal for the purposes of holding house concerts, accommodating musicians and scholars from abroad, and recording our music.
If you know of other free (or nearly free) concerts that occur regularly, please contact Anne Ku.
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