Jacqueline Oskamp guest curator in June
The guest curator of this edition of Festival Dag in de Branding is music publicist Jacqueline Oskamp. And not without reason: on 7 June, in Amare’s Conservatoriumzaal, she presents to the audience her brand-new Louis Andriessen biography, Groots is de liefde (‘Love is an excellent thing’) and is herself presented by the Municipality of The Hague with the Theo Bruins Award for her services to Dutch (contemporary) music. Naturally the programme includes music by Andriessen, performed by Claron McFadden, Ensemble Klang, members of Asko|Schönberg and students of the Royal Conservatoire.
Oskamp curated a festival day with three more special concerts. The Paper Ensemble, led by idiosyncratic maker Jochem van Tol, explores the musical and theatrical possibilities of paper in the rustle and bustle of a performance inspired by Japanese gardens. Composer-in-residence Myrtó Nizami presents her philosophically inspired work Prima Materia, which concludes her two-year residency at Festival Dag in de Branding. The work is performed by soprano Kristia Michael and Ensemble Modelo62.
The grand finale of this edition is New European Ensemble’s latest project, a collaboration with Scottish star author Ali Smith. At New European’s request, four female composers wrote new works based on the four hyper-urgent seasonal novels published by Smith since 2016. Between the compositions, Ali Smith reads excerpts from her novels.