This March, I conducted the NNO in a 70 minute dance-set of trance-music of world-famous DJ Armin van Buuren's tophits, in an orchestration by Tom Trapp. Armin has just been awarded a “Gouden Harp” for his extraordinary gift of reaching and moving so many people with his music. It was quite an experience.

See the results at  NNO speelt hits Armin van Buuren met verve and Armin van Buuren & NNO - In and Out of Love

Is ‘Trance’ for symphonic orchestra the future of classical music ?

It was for sure great fun to do the recent Noord Nederlands Orkest (NNO) production with them: the orchestra had the guts to play 70 minutes of ‘trance music’ of Armin van Buuren in a symphonic arrangement. Armin van Buuren being a world- famous Dutch DJ, the production got very high appreciation amongst trance fans from all over the world (thanks to the internet). So it was definitely a big success !

The big question we should ask, however, is whether this is the right direction for a classical orchestra. Put simply, the classical orchestra could be seen as being degraded to a big ‘cover-band’ in this type of productions.

Although the music resembles minimal music, with a 70 minutes non-stop rhythmic performance, the musical concept is totally different. Apart from the fact that van Buuren may also have been inspired by classical composers, it has nothing to do with classical music of any kind.

The problem of classical music is that at this moment there is no classical trend which is able to engage so many people. Don’t get me wrong, I am not asking for classical composers to write music like that, music which makes people dance or clap and become ecstatic when decibels are over 120 with frequencies you can feel physically. On the other hand, if we talk about getting bigger and younger audiences, we might learn something from those trance-concerts. Of course the kind of audience will be different in classical concerts, but they are part of the same society!

The present situation for classical orchestras and ensembles seems to be: there is a very traditional “scene”, performing mostly music composed before 1900, i.e. before music started to leave tonality. They represent the real ‘classical music’, mostly played in very traditional setting and dress. Operas are mostly operating in this first segment. And there are also ensembles mainly specialising in the ‘new classical music’. This latter scene has a small but faithful audience. Both scenes are important and valuable and they should keep on existing. They deserve funding and attention and audiences because they represent and guard our musical cultural heritage. It is the role of civilization to protect this !!

But we have to be honest, these classical music performances with their present form of operating will not be able to generate ‘new audiences’. This requires a new “scene”, new ways of performing classical music in addition to the other two. This new scene will have to have a different content (but ‘classical music’) combined with a totally different kind of presentation. These musical events should have the natural capacity to reach people in a way in which an artist like Andy Warhole was able to reach a wide public. This is in my view a difficult but important task for contemporary composers and performers. The good news is that the first signs are starting to drip into the musical world.

In the meantime it is not bad to try experiments like the trance-project of the NNO!

My recent stint in the USA with the brass section of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra was a delightful experience. Succcesful and very interesting. And the collaboration with the brass section of the New York Philharmonic was a bonus! Their brass players are of course all top rank, but there are big differences in their musical expresssion. Thus I was keen to hear the result of both playing together. The outcome was FABULOUS!

The different characteristics of both orchestras - like the roundness of the Concertgebouw sound and the clean sound of the New York Philharmonic, but also their different ways of attack - fully melted together in our Riverside Church concert. The best of both came out and created a very new "sound culture". It was a fantastic experience to conduct the various concerts of the KCO bBrass (including a brief performance at the Carnegie Hall!) and the joint KCO/NYPh brass concerts, and to experience the welcoming musica culture of the USA!

I'd like to dedicate a few lines to an exciting Carmen production I conducted last December. At the initiative of Director Hans van den Boomen, we produced a multidisciplinary version of the opera, whereby both opera and theater were combined.

The result was a combination of theater scenes alternated with the music of the opera, glued together to one organic unity. This version came probably a lot closer to the original version of Bizet's Opera Comique, when dialogues were always spoken, very different from the opera performances we are used to nowadays. The real novelty in our production was the fact the main characters (Carmen/Don Jose/Michaela) were doubled by an actor and a singer who performed their own roles simultaneously. This not only gave a very interesting perspective of the story, but it also enabled the specialists to excel in their own discipline of music or theatre.

The aim of this family-production was to bring Opera closer to a younger audience. I am pretty sure that we succeeded, since all performances were sold out and the children (from age 9 on) really seemed to enjoy it. I am convinced that it is worthwhile to explore the possibilities of this 'genre' in future projects, since this could well be the classical alternative to the nowadays very popular musical! Maybe this is one way to connect classical music a bit more with today's society?

With great pleasure I announce the launch of a web-forum discussion concerning the future of classical music: www.future-of-classicalmusic.com.
I strongly believe there is a need for some changes in the classical music scene, and the aim of the forum is to bring together the know-how and ideas of the many relevant participants: creators and performers of music as well as the audience. These will identify the steps to be taken. Please join the discussion and contribute your ideas!
I am committed to help realise what is necessary to give future to classical music!

In the TV programme Pauw&Witteman and on NL-Radio4, Dutch author and comedian Kees van Kooten already announced the release of the CD "de Dag-en Nachtegaal" (the Day- and Nightingale), a composition of Dutch composer Theo Loevendie, with Kees van Kooten as storyteller, the North Netherlands Orchestra and with me as conductor. Kees van Kooten wrote a new, lively text to the music which Loevendie wrote in 1974. This composition, based on The Chinese Nightingale, the lovely fairytale of Hans Christian Andersen, has been performed worldwide with great success.
It has been a real pleasure to help produce this attractive new version, with the fruitful cooperation between van Kooten and Loevendie. Editor is the Bezige Bij, "Luisterboek" with CD, DVD and a karaoke option. ISBN: 978 90 234 3698 0. The CD will also be issued in other languages!

As from June 2008, I have been appointed Chairman of the newly established Artistic Board of CODARTS (the Rotterdam Conservatory). The Artistic Board was created to develop and coordinate the overall artistic policy of the conservatory, covering its six Academies (Classical music, Jazz music, Pop music, World music, Music theater and Music education). This role is very interesting because I am convinced that once the Academies work well together they will all experience surplus value, and very interesting things will happen artistically. CODARTS will then be (even more) a breeding place for trendsetting musicians.