Intro
The Muziekgebouw Productiehuis is a new initiative of the venue aiming in supporting innovation in contemporary music and sound culture. I was invited by Joost Heijthuijsen for a residency with a focus on exploring the possibilities of the building and its workforce. Working closely with my collaborator and co-director of previous projects Yannis Michalopoulos and being backed by I/O, we put on the table – or better on the wall – a couple of main questions:
What kind of engaging experiences can we create for the audience in a dialogue with the very building?
What shape can our ongoing research on rural and agricultural cultures take in such an urban venue?
“Hello again”
My first contact with the Muziekgebouw goes back in 2007, moving to Amsterdam as a composition student. In a different time, in a different cultural landscape in the Netherlands, we used to visit numerous concerts at the venue. We generally thought of the building as our “home”. My first job in the music sector in Amsterdam was assistant director at the Nieuw Ensemble; a key to enter the building was given to me, going to the office a few times a week. Back then all contemporary music ensemble had their office at the Muziekgebouw. Nieuw Ensemble used to perform very often in the building and throughout those years I learned the tech of the main hall, the production behind such events, the ways to program a concert and host an audience. After the big budget cuts in the Netherlands, with the ensemble culture being in suspense, it seems like I couldn’t just cut off completely from the building, as I continued returning as a teacher of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (a building in the neighbourhood of the Muziekgebouw): an annual tour is specially organised for my students sharing most of the venue’s secrets, walking through any possible passage, being guided by and discussing with a technician, a producer or even a programmer of the Muziekgebouw.
Calendar (click-on dates)
May 20-26 a meeting place
June 10-24 re-imagining the building
July 25 – August 2 designing a test
August 5-19 the tryout
September 1-19 starting the wrap up
October 24-27 the microtonal Fokker organ
May 20-26 a meeting place
Let’s begin with another question:
What would it sound like if we would be standing at the very spot where the Muziekgebouw stands, but it wouldn’t ever had been built?
A first reaction to the residency was the feeling that I didn’t have much to explore after all these years of being around, having visited almost all possible corners and having tried out ideas such as playing tennis in a completely empty hall (I/O 2013), re-creating a rural cabaret (re- draft 2018) or placing speakers under the audience, bringing a fridge on stage and having the ensemble perform from the loading dock while they keyboardist (only) sounds from a speaker in the fridge (μ 2021). But I convinced myself that with a researcher’s mentality new discoveries would emerge. Joost was a great contributor on this. He helped me get in contact with most of people working at the organisation, engaged in an ongoing dialogue about the building and its programming. Quite unexpectedly he introduced me to the building’s history by stepping one day on a chair to get from a high shelf the dossier of Muziekgebouw’s application put together by the people of the Ijsbreker. Joost, Yannis and me started conversations on the past, the present and the future of the building, with nice questions coming in from the Productiehuis’ producer Leonie Baars.
A wall to think on / May
On the first day of the residency we agreed that I would have a wall in the building where I could gather ideas and any kind of material throughout the residency. Walking here and there, checking if Reinbert de Leeuw’s smoking room would be a good option, we eventually ended up with a wall at the offices of the Muziekgebouw, in front of the programmers and producers. In the beginning it was a bit intimidating as I had never worked in front of others this way, but it proved to be quite fun and liberating – mostly because the team at the office has been very inclusive and supportive.
Next to walking through the building again and again, getting to know the people and taking photos of almost every angle, corner, wall, stairs of it, I got the chance to attend events the venue programs. It was a great opportunity to revisit what kind of audience goes to what event, how does the venue function when such audiences are in house, how does the whole experience feel like. The building offers a lot of possibilities, however, it is always a matter of keeping the balance between artistic ideas, budget and audience numbers. How can we create something engaging and new (in whatever way new can be defined) and where is that fine line that when it’s crossed the compromise is too larger for an idea to be realised in an artistically meaningful way?
June 10-24 re-imagining the building
June reconfirmed the versatility of the building through the different performances of the international Holland Festival that took place at the Muziekgebouw. It was a coincidence that I was as well selected for Immerse, a program that accommodates a small international group of artists to visit the festival, get to know each other and meet featured artists of the programming. I had the chance to study the transformation of the Grote Zaal’s stage and the way the foyers are being used to host the audience, parallel events and a party.
A wall to think on / June
The notes on the wall get reformed. I start shaping the points of the building’s main joints and connecting the dots. I count and recount the halls, the foyers, the backstage spaces until all the building is in my head like a 3D map: the Grote Zaal (main hall), the Kleine Zaal (small hall that hosts the microtonal Fokker Organ), Entreehal, Foyerdeck 1, 2, 3, the Atrium, the Loading Dock, rehearsal studios 1, 2, 3, backstage passages, storage spaces, the underground parking.
The ongoing discussion with Joost and Yannis continues, as well as the getting to know of the technicians and personnel who work in the building. Many stories of the past, fun projects that they remember of, strange uses of the spaces are shared. Something reoccurring was the fact that the foyers are public space that belongs to the city, meaning the building is open to the public no matter what is happening in the halls. In these discussions we invited Voltnoi Brege, one half of the curatorial duo DETACH who direct Stegi Radio. Voltnoi visited Amsterdam and the Muziekgebouw, we went through ideas and plans all together, walked once more through the building, remembered the Margaroni Residency and went through the notes on the wall. We let things sit and impregnate the future.
July 25 – August 2 designing a test
A wall to think on / July
July was full of technical questions, plans, solutions about how to conduct a large scale test in August with the available means. From our experience of the Margaroni Residency we knew that when working with large and multiple space things take time, there’s a lot of walking back and forth, synchronisation (if needed) is a challenge, and that flexibility on design is a must. So we started making a list of the spaces we wanted to include in our test throughout the building, the available time to build up, the available speakers, projectors, computers and connections.
August 5-19 the tryout
We moved my desk from the office to Studio 2 for a couple of weeks. With the Muziekgebouw being a powerhouse, I’m very grateful that my ideal workspace could be created: 4 speakers, a large desk, a large TV screen, an additional projector. The headquarters where ready to finalise the designing of the test throughout the building. Bart Mesman (technical director of the Muziekgebouw), Gerco van Veenen and Jaap (technicians) joined us and turned plans into reality. Connecting the various spaces was a puzzle, but one we managed to put together and that was very inspiring and optimistic for what we plan for the future. Next to the tech, we were in contact with the marketing & communication team of the Productiehuis, through Gigi Blay, Vera van Duuren and Yohann Pollet. For the test we invited a small group as a test audience, among which Frank van der Weij (project manager of I/O). We set everything on, entered from one of the loading doors and had a 2-hour walk from space to space, back an forth, checking how the dialogue between the artistic research’s content and the building itself works out.
A wall to think on / August
Moving around again and again post-it, photos, notes, ideas gave a final shape to the plan on the office wall. An approach on space and material became clear; we should not treat it as scenography. I am not interested in making theatre, we should rather explore that intermediate space between an installation and an event. An immersive experience that encompasses the audience itself as bodies being in space – and moving in space -, the various installations that create a functional environment with which the performers or even the audience can interact (e.g. simply by walking through or on it), and of course a mixed sound world that will be engulfing everything. Sound will be the guide and we should let bounce on all sort of surfaces and walls, cross all possible spaces from door to door, let the audience find the crossing points in the building of different sound worlds crossfading.
September 1-19 starting the wrap up
September coincided with the presentation of the project State of Music and in danger as a whole, which was produced with the full support by the Muziekgebouw. Throughout the residency a very interesting dialogue was taking place parallel to the rest; the stories and memories Pauline Mouw was sharing of the various projects throughout the history of the building. Pauline is one of the venue’s light technicians. I would like to thank her for thinking along with us on what this building has been, is and can be.
Moving on
We started wrapping up the residency, cleaning the office and our equipment, but to my surprise we were asked to leave the notes on the wall. In September a kick-off meeting of the Muziekgebouw Productiehuis took place, bringing all artists involved together – we certainly are a community! It felt very nice being part of it. The residency gave us the opportunity to test our ideas and get a few steps closer to realising them. It leaves us busy with working on actually making them happen, cumulating to a potential large-scale work in season 2025-26.
October 24-26 The microtonal Fokker organ
Last but not least, I had the chance to put my hands on the Fokker Organ which is installed in the Kleine Zaal of the Muziekgebouw. The instrument has a long history and has found its place in the building since 2009, belonging to the Huygens-Fokker Foundation. What very special about this organ is that it is microtonal, dividing each octave in 31 parts, based on meantone tuning, and it can either played through the enhanced keyboard or be controlled via computer via midi signals. There are as well 4 speakers integrated among the pipes, making it easier to mix electronics or even create a hybrid organ using the actual microtonal pipes and sampled organ sounds of any possible tuning.
