This year, the Muze van Zuid music festival, which will take place on 17, 18 and 19 September 2021, will deploy more than a hundred musicians and singers to give concerts in Amsterdam-Zuid, in living rooms, parks, monuments and other special places.

In a hidden chapel, for example, soloists on cello and clarinet will shine and choral singing will resound in the historic Riding Hall of De Hollandsche Manege.

The programme of Muze van Zuid 2021 includes 24 different concerts by over 100 top musicians, 15 guided music walks or podcasts and four street safaris with amateur chamber music ensembles. Music by over 30 Dutch composers will be performed, including five world premieres. The festival offers many musical styles, from gamelan to string quartet and from brass band to piano, cello, lute and clarinet.

This time, special attention is paid to Surinamese composers from the South, such as Jan Victor Dahlberg. The Hindustani singer Madhu Lalbahadoersing will perform his work. Special attention is also being paid to Hungarian musicians who have given colour to Amsterdam’s musical life, such as Géza Frid, Oskar Back and Tibor de Machula.

For the first time, the festival also offers live music outside the Concertgebouw area, particularly in the Berlage neighbourhood and on the Stadionplein. Also new are the musical street safaris by Het Orkest Amsterdam and UvA orchestra J. Pzn Sweelinck.

Participating in the festival are cellist Lidy Blijdorp, singer Sterre Konijn, the Balkan Brothers, Neo-fanfare 9×13, the Nieuw Amsterdams Klarinet Kwartet, the Amstel Quartet, the Berlage Saxophone Quartet, the Aristos Quartet, violinists Joris van Rijn and Emi Resnick, La Sfera Armoniosa with Mike Fentross, clarinettist Anna voor de Wind, Ensemble Resilience and Ensemble Multifoon by Sinta Willur. This fourth edition, Consensus Vocalist is ‘choir in residence’.

Finally, pianists Koenraad Spijker, Maxime Snaterse and Lestari Scholtes will dig up rarely or never heard piano music from the archives, alongside top works by Debussy, Chopin and the Russian Aleksandr Skrjabin. The latter has in fact once stayed in the Van Breestraat.

Muze van Zuid is an initiative of two residents of Amsterdam-Zuid (South Amsterdam), who thought it would be great to play music by composers who have been immortalised on the street signs, such as Schuyt, Diepenbrock or Coenen. More information about the festival, for which ticket sales have started, can be found on www.muzevanzuid.nl.

Photo:

Amstel Kwartet by Govert de Roos

No fewer than seventy sculptures can be seen on the five-kilometre sculpture route of ARTZUID 2021, which starts on Thursday 1 July.

The sculpture route, which is free of charge, runs along Apollolaan and Minervalaan with offshoots to Museumplein, Churchilllaan, Stadionplein and the Zuidas.

There is an information pavilion at Minervalaan 1, where you can have a cup of coffee. You can also find all the information at www.artzuid.nl and download an app (ARTZUID), which allows you to follow an audio tour.

This year 55 artists are participating in the sculpture route, which is made possible by the tireless efforts of 100 neighbourhood volunteers. There are loans from home and abroad, there is a lot of new work to be seen and some artists made new sculptures especially for this sculpture route.

At the photograph:

Raquel van Haver: Untitled 2019

The ARTZUID 2021 sculpture route is already in the starting blocks and hopes to start on 15 May.

‘Imagine’ is this year’s theme and 50 artists are contributing sculptures to this outdoor exhibition, in which they can incorporate their ideas about themes such as equality, freedom, sustainability, animal welfare, nature conservation and poverty. The organisation promises a fresh, challenging exhibition of international top artists and talent from the Dutch academies. There is special attention for female artists and artists from migrant backgrounds.

The following artists are in any case involved: KAWS, Leiko Ikamura, Zhan Wang, Sokari Douglas Camp, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Lin May Saeed, Nelson Carrilho, Marieke Bolhuis, Tal R, Jonathan Meese, Anne Wenzel, David Bade, Raquel van Haver, Tirzo Martha and Arno Quinze.

Unfortunately, since 1 January, Art Zuid has had to make do without structural subsidy from the municipality, although fortunately the Stadsdeel Zuid does support the foundation. In order to cover the costs and make the exhibition, which is free of charge, possible, the organising foundation calls on all citizens of Amsterdam to make a one-off donation. How to do so is explained below.

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