15-08-14 7:50 pm – Source: Het Parool
Mirjam Barendregt © Sanne Zurné <- - start embedded context master>
Friday begins the seventeenth edition of The Canal. “You can start very small if you’re good, and then the stage grows with you,” says the new director, Miriam Barendregt
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Upside down, which is the theme of the Amsterdam Canal Festival this year. The event that people in a special way to get acquainted with classical music, will be held on roofs and other elevations, but also underground in a subway station and a bicycle. “And the music is so beautiful that visitors will be blown away,” says the new director, Miriam Barendregt.
She works with the organization. Since 1 April “I saw the post and immediately thought: this is my job. A nice collaboration with many different people for a wonderful festival in a super city. “
This year’s Amsterdam World Jazz City, so is more jazz than usual on the program. Jazz and classical music go well together and cross-fertilization produces beautiful results. In the “Smoeshaan Sessions’ musicians to jam together.”
The unusual locations are scattered throughout the city. “Really special places are still closed cycle tunnel from Central Station, subway station Vijzelgracht and a bridge houses on the Amstelkade,” says Barendregt. “Even people who know Amsterdam very well, seeing locations other than usual, as the lodge building of Freemasonry, which is actually only visible to members, but also private homes in the canal.”
Route
Visitors can download the Grachtenfestival app to plot. their route “You can filter by genre, and it’s puzzling how you can cram. Your favorite concerts in one day
About a quarter of the more than 250 concerts is free. These are mainly plays in canals, the deck and spacious barges and pontoons, and of course in parks and plazas.
Last year broke a record with The Canal approximately 63,000 visitors, but now it’s smaller festival. Barendregt: “That was a special year with additional programming, because the canals were four hundred years. We are not greater than we are now. Otherwise it will be too much and people do not know where to go. “
The alternation of a very small, intimate setting as the bridge house with large outdoor events is very important according to Barendregt. “We focus on the lovers, but also for tourists who happened to walk by.”
Talent
Where the festival really counts is new talent. Barendregt is very excited about a project with young people under eighteen of the Sweelinck Academy. “Talent is with us between ten and thirty years beginning from very young to breaking. You can start very small here, but if you’re good, and then the stage grows with you. ” As an example she cites harpist Remy van Kesteren. He won last year’s Grachtenfestival Price and is now artist in residence.
In the series “Masterful!” experienced old masters linked to young musicians. “For example, we spend pianist Willem Brons, who is in her seventies, with a young talent together, as a single, unique concert duo,” says Barendregt
Not to be missed is in her series Future Music: jazz. on the water with Sanne Huijbrechts and Maarten Hogenhuis. Or the São Paulo youth symphony orchestra, for the first time in the Netherlands with 108 young musicians, almost all from slums.
Next Thursday there is a tour of three classic boats surprise concerts. The next day there is a “Classical Music Rave ‘in Undercurrent in North, where you can go to classic sounds of DJs and live music all night. Loose
Under the title Junior Grachtenfestival there is a comprehensive program for children up to twelve years. Thus, in West, North and East a children’s opera, Queen’s Soup.
Councillor
Before the Amsterdam Canal Festival Barendregt was working in business services. She was also active in politics, including twelve years as a councilor for D66.’Bij organizing a festival, you have a lot to do with the church, both administrative and managerial almost two decades. In my spare time I am active in the cultural sector. So I am president of a national association of artists and co-founder of Amersfoort Hotel City. In Amsterdam Canal Festival all comes together. “
Barendregt has many plans for the event. “I hope even more with the history of Amsterdam and other disciplines to connect. This year we have a documentary, Jazz for a summer’s day, in Eye. Subsequent editions I want something more organized and make combinations of classical and jazz with poetry, photography and film. “
The new Councillor for Culture, Kajsa Ollongren opens the festival Friday. The opening concert was on a pontoon in the Singel canal opposite the Bellevue Theatre and gives a taste of what to hear during the festival and to see. Barendregt: “A kind of palette of concerts.”
The Canal Festival takes place from 15/24 August
(By: Lotte van Rosmalen)
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