Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: "Music Building on the IJ") is the main

concert hall A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention centres that may ...

for

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

on the IJ in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The building opened in 2005 and is located above the

IJtunnel The IJtunnel, opened on 30 October 1968, is an automobile tunnel under the IJ that connects the centre of Amsterdam with Amsterdam-Noord. The tunnel is part of a route across Amsterdam that connects the Ringweg North with the Ringweg South ne ...

, a ten-minute walk from

Amsterdam Centraal Amsterdam Centraal Station ( nl, italic=no, Station Amsterdam Centraal ; abbreviation: Asd) is the largest railway station in Amsterdam, North Holland, the Netherlands. A major international railway hub, it is used by 192,000 passengers a day, m ...

station. The building was designed by Danish architects

3XN 3XN is a Danish architectural practice with head office in Copenhagen. History The company was founded in Århus in 1986 as Nielsen, Nielsen & Nielsen (later 3 X Nielsen) by Kim Herforth Nielsen, Lars Frank Nielsen and Hans Peter Svendler Nielsen. ...

. The

Bimhuis The Bimhuis is a concert hall for jazz and improvised music in Amsterdam. With an average of 150 performances a year the Bimhuis is the main stage for these musical genres in the Netherlands. In 2017 it was also a host for the 17th edition of ...

is part of and partly integrated in the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ.

Background

Before the Muziekgebouw there was Muziekcentrum de IJsbreker located at the Weesperzijde that got shut down and replaced by the Muziekgebouw. Just like the IJsbreker the venue primarily focuses on

, while the Bimhuis is mainly focused on contemporary jazz music. Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ has one big concert space, but also a smaller one that is also used for conferences, talk, exhibitions. Also concerts take place at various other locations in the building such as the atrium and on the three large balconies above the restaurant. Often expositions of installations and

sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound art ...

are programmed as well. Yearly the World Minimal Music Festival and

Holland Festival The Holland Festival () is the oldest and largest performing arts festival in the Netherlands. It takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theatre, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and archite ...

takes place in Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. There is a monthly cross-over event called The Rest is Noise that involves

experimental pop music Experimental pop is pop music that cannot be categorized within traditional musical boundaries or which attempts to push elements of existing popular forms into new areas. It may incorporate experimental techniques such as musique concrète, a ...

in the agenda of the venue. The first main and artistic director was Jan Wolff (2005–2008); Tino Haenen has been artistic director since June 2008. Haenen was previously director of the Belgian contemporary music festival

Ars Musica {{Notability, date=June 2020 Founded in 1989, Ars Musica is an annual contemporary music international festival that takes place in Brussels during several weeks, usually in March. Nowadays, Ars musica is one of the biggest world festival for con ...

. Since December 1, 2008 Boudewijn Berentsen is the main director, while Haenen stayed the artistic director. Since February 2012 Haenen is followed up by Maarten van Boven, formerly the vice-director of Paradiso.

Education

IJsbreker was a pioneering organization in the field of education about

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

for children. Originally named the Klankspeeltuin ('Sound playground') the education centre had a collection of interactive

sound installation Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound art ...

s. Muziekgebouw continued the activity of the IJsbreker with a newly build collection and has an active education programme for children and teenagers. Over 400 workshops per year are held there, and is the biggest in Europe on this educational front. The Klankspeeltuin consists of a space filled with unique custom build

experimental musical instrument An experimental musical instrument (or custom-made instrument) is a musical instrument that modifies or extends an existing instrument or class of instruments, or defines or creates a new class of instrument. Some are created through simple modif ...

s. Around 2016 the old collection became outdated and suffered from a lot of technical flaws and the team decided to renew the complete collection and replace if for smaller hands on instruments, instead of interactive installations. With this equipment the organisation also runs events on location. Also it is not only focused on children and teenagers anymore, but also gives more elaborate multiple day workshops for older people/students. For this project they approached a team of inventors to build a unique collection of

s for them. In June 2017 the Klankspeeltuin was renamed as the Sound Lab and currently owns 100 different instruments ranging from a series of ethnic instruments from all over the world to known odd instruments such as the

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

and the

steel tongue drum A steel tongue drum, tank drum, or hank drum is a round steel slit/tongue drum in the Idiophone family originally fashioned from a propane cylinder. Description A steel tongue drum can be made from an empty (often 20lb) propane tank. The tank is ...

to more unique designs by builders such as

Yuri Landman Yuri Landman (born 1 February 1973) is a Dutch inventor of musical instruments and musician who has made several experimental electric string instruments for a number of artists including Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Liars, Jad Fair of Half Japan ...

Arvid Jense Arvid, Arved, Arnvid or Arvydas is a male given name, most common in Scandinavia but also in Iran and Lithuania. In Scandinavia it is derived from Old Norse and means "forest of eagles" or 'eagle wood'. Arvid is a royal male name that is composed ...

Diane Verdonk Diane may refer to: People *Diane (given name) Film * ''Diane'' (1929 film), a German silent film * ''Diane'' (1956 film), a historical drama film starring Lana Turner * ''Diane'' (2017 film), a mystery film directed by Michael Mongillo * ''D ...

Dato Instruments Dato may refer to: * ''Dato'', a variant of Datuk, a traditional Malay honorific title * ''Dato'' (newspaper), a Danish newspaper * Eduardo Dato e Iradier, Spanish politician * Dato Khujadze, also known as Dato, Georgian pop singer * Dato, Greece, ...

Makey Makey Makey Makey: An Invention Kit for Everyone is an invention kit designed to connect everyday objects to computer keys. Using a circuit board, alligator clips, and a USB cable, the toy uses closed loop electrical signals to send the computer either ...

, and others. Current director of the Sound Lab is Anouk Diepenbroek.

Fokker Organ

Inside the Bamzaal there is also the

microtonal Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones—intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of tw ...

31-TET In music, 31 equal temperament, 31-ET, which can also be abbreviated 31-TET (31 tone ET) or 31- EDO (equal division of the octave), also known as tricesimoprimal, is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 31 equal-sized steps (equ ...

Fokker organ Adriaan Daniël Fokker (; 17 August 1887 – 24 September 1972) was a Dutch physicist. He worked in the fields of special relativity and statistical mechanics. He was the inventor of the Fokker organ, a 31-tone equal-tempered (31-TET) organ. ...

, designed by

Adriaan Fokker Adriaan Daniël Fokker (; 17 August 1887 – 24 September 1972) was a Dutch physicist. He worked in the fields of special relativity and statistical mechanics. He was the inventor of the Fokker organ, a 31-tone equal-tempered (31-TET) organ. ...

. Regularly concerts take place on this organ.

Offices

It houses the

, Stichting Huygens-Fokker, Slagwerk Den Haag as well as many other Dutch music organisations. It also hosted some events of the 17th edition of the

Sonic Acts Sonic Acts is an organisation for the research, development and production of works at the intersection of art, science and theory. It also commissions and co-produces new works, often in collaboration with international festivals, arts organisati ...

Festival, in 2017. Image:Muziekgebouw amsterdam.jpg, The Muziekgebouw and Bimhuis at night Image:Interieur grote zaal Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ.jpg, Interior Image:Pieter wispelwey cellist and Dejan Lazic by Fai Ho 30 januari 2007.jpg, A concert by cellist

Pieter Wispelwey Pieter Wispelwey (born 25 September 1962) is a Dutch cellist. In 1992, he was the first cellist to receive the Netherlands Music Prize, a government-awarded prize given to the most promising young musician in the Netherlands. He has come to ...

Image:Buildings in water.jpg, View from the water on the Muziekgebouw and Passenger Terminal Amsterdam

Architecture prizes

The building has received several prizes: * The Grand Jury Piewie Prize (2006) * Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence, category Europe (2006) * Ballekes in tomat

References

External links

Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ
(official website)
Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ
(official website)
Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ
at Google 3D Warehouse {{Coord, 52, 22, 41.30, N, 4, 54, 46.80, E, region:NL_type:landmark, display=title Concert halls in Amsterdam Music venues in the Netherlands 3XN buildings Amsterdam-Oost