Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ ( English: "Music Building on the IJ") is the main

concert hall A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage (theatre), 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 ...

for

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is Western art music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st-century classical music, 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 Modernism (music), post-tonal music after the death of ...

on the IJ in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. 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 (Amsterdam), 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 R ...

, a ten-minute walk from Amsterdam Centraal station. The building was designed by Danish architects 3XN. 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 Time-based media, time-based Artistic medium, medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in Cross-genr ...

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

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. 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 installations. 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, led by Anouk Diepenbroek, 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 SoundLAB 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 aft ...

and the steel tongue drum 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 (band), Liars, Jad Fair ...

, Arvid Jense, Diane Verdonk, Dato Instruments, Makey Makey, and others. Current director of the SoundLAB is Floortje Smehuijzen.

Fokker Organ

Inside the Kleine Zaal (previously known as Bamzaal) there is also the

microtonal 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 twelve equal interv ...

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

Fokker 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 equal temperament, 31-tone equal-temp ...

. Regularly concerts take place on this organ.

Offices

It houses the Holland Festival, 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 Festival, in 2017. File:Interieur grote zaal Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ.jpg, The venue's main hall (Grote Zaal) File:Pieter wispelwey cellist and Dejan Lazic by Fai Ho 30 januari 2007.jpg, A concert by cellist Pieter Wispelwey File:Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ at night.jpg, The Muziekgebouw and Bimhuis by night File:Muziekgebouw Amsterdam foyer.jpg, Part of the venue's foyer spaces File:Hotels (198811943).jpeg, The Muziekgebouw and Bimhuis next to a cruise ship

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