In creating a link between today’s issues and music, between singing and living stories of today, I hope to create awareness, generate energy and bring people together.
Latest production: Harvest
We invited a group of composers, including Calliope Tsoupaki and Annelies van Parys, to write short monodramas in dialogue and close collaboration with several singers, such as Claron McFadden and Helena Rasker. These pieces offer new stories and layered characters for seasoned singers, brimming with life experience, strength and charisma.
Harvest is more than a concert of monodramas that spotlight experienced voices; it is also a project that gives composers the opportunity to create compelling new roles, tailor-made for seasoned personalities. And a chance for acclaimed singers to reap repertoire that truly suits them.
The monodramas are contextualised with film footage and interview excerpts.
Claron McFadden, Helena Rasker, Marcel Beekman, Andrew Watts | voice
Miles Walter | piano
Calliope Tsoupaki, Annelies van Parys, Rob Zuidam, Yumi Agustine, Prach Boondiskulchok, Yating Wang, Tymon Zgorzelski | compositions
Cora Burggraaf | concept, script, staging
Bowie Verschuuren | film
Ira Judkovskaja | dramaturgy
Latest Musing
This is the remote corner, the flipside. This is where ugliness is stored. Shadows are thrown around erratically and I wander around the area searching, but searching for what? Next to an enormous oak tree, the excavator stands frozen as if enchanted. Rust mixes with tree trunks, but the wild carrot is blooming. Long, glistening threads surround the tractor. A chain saw in the distance. Between the sleepers, ladders and roof tiles stands a sauna on wheels. It looks new. I peek inside and see that the door on the other side is open. Squeezing myself past decaying cages, I notice that the grass near the entrance is trampled. It smells cosy inside. The little stove is beckoning.
I do understand – I would hide here myself.
I leave the door open, the chain saw is drawing closer. A horsefly hovers around me. There is a rustle coming from above. And then with an enormous roar, the old oak tree drops a branch right in front of me. Moss is flying everywhere, dust covers my shoes. Be off, you!