On September 17, 18 and 19, 2021, festival Muze van Zuid brings over one hundred professional musicians and singers to Amsterdam-South for concerts in living rooms, parks, monuments, churches and business premises. In addition to concerts, there are films and lectures.
Two residents of Amsterdam-South came up with the idea in 2016 to revive the music of the street name signs of Amsterdam-South. Everyone knows the street named after Beethoven, but who were Willaert, Schuyt, Diepenbrock, Hacquart, Ban, Van Bree or Coenen again?
Artistic director Huib Ramaer guides the audience during music walks through the streets of the Concertgebouwbuurt and the Vondelpark to concerts at special venues. In a hidden chapel, soloists on cello and clarinet shine, and in the historic Rijzaal of De Hollandsche Manege, choir singing resonates.
Muze van Zuid 2021 consists of 24 different concerts by over 100 top musicians, 15 music walks with guide or podcast and 4 street safaris with amateur chamber music ensembles. Pieces by over 30 Dutch composers, including 5 world premieres, are performed live. The festival offers many musical styles - from gamelan to string quartet and from brass band to piano, cello, lute and clarinet. This edition celebrates 400 years of Sweelinck and 100 years of Diepenbrock, but also the latest music by contemporary composers.
New: Indonesia, Suriname and Hungary
Muze van Zuid 2021 celebrates Surinamese composers from South including Jan Victor Dahlberg with Hindustani singer Madhu Lalbahadoersing and percussionist Lidrick Solognier from Aruba in Caravan by Julian Schneemann. The festival highlights ties with Indonesia with Ritual Bells, Global Gongs by Sinta Wullur, who once completed her studies in piano and composition at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam-South.
Moreover, there is special attention for Hungarian musicians who brought color to Amsterdam's musical life, such as Géza Frid, Oskar Back and Tibor de Machula.
The Amsterdam Tasting Room serves drinks and a dinner by the chef at the Amstel Quartet. For the first time, the festival also offers live music outside the Concertgebouwbuurt, in the Berlage district and at Stadionplein. New are also the musical street safaris, organized by ensembles from Het Orkest Amsterdam and UvA-Orkest J.Pzn Sweelinck. The orchestra members present themselves in chamber format and have been rehearsing for this since May under professional coaches.
On the stage of Muze van Zuid 2021 are, among others, cellist Lidy Blijdorp, singer Sterre Konijn, the Balkan Brothers, Neo-fanfare 9x13, the Nieuw Amsterdams Klarinet Kwartet, the Amstel Quartet, the Berlage Saxophone Quartet, the Aristos Quartet, violinists Joris van Rijnen Emi Ohi Resnick, La Sfera Armoniosa with Mike Fentross, clarinetist Anna voor de Wind, Ensemble Resilience and Ensemble Multifoon by Sinta Wullur. Consensus Vocalis conducted by Béni Csillag is choir in residence in this fourth edition of the festival.
Pianists Koenraad Spijker, Maxime Snaterse and Lestari Scholtes unveil piano music from the archives, such as by Johannes Meinardus Coenen and Johannes van Bree. The three pianists present this rarely to never heard piano music alongside top works by Debussy, Chopin and the Russian Aleksandr Skrjabin, who once stayed on Van Breestraat.
More information and ticket sales via http://www.muzevanzuid.nl
- Photos: Foppe Schut, Govert de Roos, Marc Borggreve
- Poster: Janno Hahn