Musical Utopias #9

Start the year with three evenings of musical adventures at the 9th edition of our Musical Utopias Festival!

This year, the festival will take place at three different venues in The Hague: Korzo, Amare and, for the first time, our very own Studio Klang. We’ll be moving from the city to the dunes, taking you, our visitors, on a journey through an incredible musical landscape. You can read all about the programme (which is still taking shape) here.

We hope to see you at this special edition of our festival!

14 January | Korzo

Laura Bowler, Zubin Kanga, Ensemble Klang

The first evening of Musical Utopias revolves around the theme of ‘excess’. Central is the world premiere of Laura Bowler’s work of the same name, she says: “Excess will be joyous, violent and grotesque all in a single breath.” Written for CyberPiano keyboard virtuoso Zubin Kanga and Ensemble Klang, the work’s technological tools are a metaphor for humanity’s insatiability and our excess consumption of resources. Kanga’s technological extensions turn the human body into a tool feeding into the technology. The work is, from one perspective, the musical embodiment of capitalism, and from another, it will be a direct challenge of the insatiable greed that fuels a capitalist mind set.”

Laura Bowler, described as “a triple threat composer-performer provocatrice” (The Art Desk), is a composer and vocalist specialising in multidisciplinary works and music theatre. Bowler has been commissioned by world leading ensembles and orchestras including the Royal Opera House, London Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, and BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Pianist Zubin Kanga is a fearless advocate of the new and unknown. For over a decade, he has been at the forefront of curating and creating interdisciplinary musical programmes which seek to explore and redefine what it means to be a performer through interactions with new technologies including his ongoing CyberPiano project, of which Excess is a part.

15 January | Nieuwe Kerk, Amare

Trevor Grahl, HIIIT, Geerten van de Wetering

‘A prize-winning work exploring cultural memory with the organ as you’ve never heard it before’
This concert forms part of Ensemble Klang’s Musical Utopias Festival and centres on Trevor Grahl’s work Spiewnik (‘Songbook’), winner of the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize for the best work in the Netherlands in 2024 and 2025.

According to the jury, “the work is brimming with original ideas, unexpected twists and a rich musical imagination.” The work combines organ, percussion and electronic music in a deeply personal narrative that explores cultural roots and musical innovation in a subtle and original way.
“No one writes for the organ quite like Grahl does,” said the jury.

Nieuwe Kerk, Amare
8.15 pm
Tickets & more information

16 January | Studio Klang

We’re bringing our Musical Utopias Festival to a close for the first time at our very own Studio Klang, and in doing so we’re celebrating our first year here. On this final evening of the festival, we’re returning to the nature around our new home and our own musical roots. We’ll be heading out into the surrounding dunes for a special concert, and back at Studio Klang we’ll be creating the ultimate venue for a concert centred around a Klang classic.
The exact programme is currently taking shape and we’ll share it as soon as possible!