Things are moving quickly at BOZAR, first there was the appointment of a new CEO and artistic director Christophe Slagmuylder, a new director for exhibitions, Zoë Gray arrived, and now there is a new duo responsible for the music department of that cultural monument. They are Jeroen Vanacker and Aurore Aubouin.
No wonder this team's vision goes under the heading "Polyphony" because that's what director Slagmuylder wants above all: "BOZAR must become a polyphonic space that stands in stark contrast to the trend towards polarization where one dominant voice tries to drown out all other voices". After one full year of Project Slagmuylder, he continues to transform his unwieldy package boat with too many departments into a vibrant organism where "unexpected connections and exchanges arise, where articulate voices complement each other. Bringing this polyphony together is our only guide and deep conviction."
It all sounds very musical, but how will the new music programmer, Jeroen Vanacker, deal with it? He calls programming here more challenging and international than in 'his' Bruges Concertgebouw and BOZAR is a larger hall to fill. With 2,200 seats, that's a thousand more. In Bruges, his programming was already outright innovative.
What now? "It won't be a completely new story, the tradition this palace has had for a hundred years remains very important. No tabula rasa then, but there will be a further evolution with new ideas and possibilities to connect things with each other. Visual art and music, but also classical music with non-classical music. That is a very important element. That is the basis of my programming: how do you seek connections between repertoires of past and present? How can you create links with other artistic disciplines? That thematic aspect is always my starting point: working with other formats. I also want to push hard on the transmusical. That's also what attracted me to come here. The fact that there is not only a lot of visual art and other artistic disciplines here, but also that in terms of music genres there is a more diverse story, with jazz, electronic music, global music, hybrid genres…, There is a much broader range of those genres and I'm looking forward enormously to connecting those genres with each other in festivals and individual projects." Inseparable from that programming is its production, and it is Aurore Aubouin who will lead the production team, in constant artistic dialogue with Jeroen Vanacker.
Upon his appointment as new music director, Jeroen Vanacker immediately encountered such a new project and an old acquaintance, the architect of his former Concertgebouw, Paul Robbrecht (and Daem). Christophe Slagmuylder had asked the architectural firm to create a dialogue between music and visual art in the large Henry le Boeuf hall, thus realizing a "mise-en-scène" for music, already during the opening week of the BOZAR season. They translated the "architectural" principles of a Béla Bartók score – his "Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta" – into five floating objects with corresponding light design. It's a very light construction, without massive investment and of a temporary nature. It is the first "Staging the concert" project in a series of three, with designs by other artists. We got a preview, the andante of that Bartók was heard and seen. Never experienced such a "staging" before. At least original!
The new music program also features two names close to Jeroen Vanacker's heart. The young Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä. The Finn comes to Brussels with three orchestras, so sought after is he: with the Oslo Philharmonic, with the Orchestre de Paris and the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam. The other name is that of American composer Caroline Shaw. She herself comes to BOZAR three times. "With her music, of course the interdisciplinary aspect appeals to me. When you hear her Partita for 8 voices (on November 21), you'll be blown away. It is not the intention to bring them here as resident artists the way I did with artists like Philippe Herreweghe, Anima Eterna or Ivan Fischer in Bruges.
The pace at which young talent manifests itself these days is so fast. That means we constantly have to keep an eye on the music scene and that I don't know the names of who I want to bring here in two years. With top artists, it's the case that they are more than happy to put Brussels on their agenda."
Of course, the classics will also be featured with international prestige: Ivan Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra, Gustavo Dudamel with his Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, the Berliner Philharmoniker with Kirill Petrenko, plenty of concerts also with the National Orchestra of Belgium and also with all other Belgian orchestras, soloists such as Beatrice Rana, Gregory Sokolov, Patricia Kopatchinskaja with Fazil Say…
Still, this too: there is a nice successor to the former Sunday morning "Next Generation-Rising Star" concerts. The new name for that series says it all: "Concert Croissant". Intimacy with the musicians on stage in a formula: breakfast + concert. There are 14 of them. Mark September 29 already with violinist Sarah Bayens, winner of the Cecilia Prize 2022.
Browse especially the extensive agenda on bozar.be for all art disciplines other than music. With highlights such as the planned exhibitions on the Dada couple Sophie Tauber and Jean Arp, the art exhibition about love "Love is louder", an extensive exhibition with work by Berlinde de Bruyckere and also the much-discussed "When We See Us" exhibition, featuring figurative Pan-African art. And watch out for the overly cool Horta Hall. It is to become a truly warm meeting place and so a redesign is coming in 2025. Already now there are performances every month, not only there but "All over de P(a)lace", in all halls of that Bozar Palace.