Tips from the team
Every year, the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht is also a feast for the people behind the scenes. Our crew members can hardly wait until August and are happy to share their concert tips!
Tineke, producer Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht
Café con Raquel
Daily at 10.00 in TivoliVredenburg, Het Gegeven Paard
A festival is more than just attending a concert. Of course, you're more than welcome to choose one gem and purely enjoy that concert. However, our festival offers the opportunity to delve deeper into the music, the stories behind it, or the surrounding themes. So, it's delightful that this year we can start with a cup of coffee during the daily morning show at TivoliVredenburg. I'm very curious about the interesting anecdotes, stories, or intriguing guests that will come by. The fact that, entirely in the tradition of our office, something delicious can also be served is purely coincidental.
Mark, finance Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht
Grandelavoix/ Björn Schmelzer
Friday, 23 August, at 20.00 in the Jacobikerk
Saturday, 24 August, at 22.30 in the Pieterskerk
One of the highlights of Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht 2023 was the performance by Grandelavoix. This year, the Belgian vocal ensemble performs twice. Under the inspiring leadership of Björn Schelmzer on Friday evening, August 23, at the Jacobikerk, and on Saturday evening, August 24, at the Pieterskerk. Go see it, go listen to it.
Memouna, Marketing & Communicatie Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht
Música Temprana/ Adrían Rodríguez van der Spoel
Friday, 23 August, at 20.00 in the Domkerk
Sunday, 25 August, at 17.00 in the Domkerk
Wednesday, 28 August, at 20.00 in the Domkerk
As someone without much knowledge of early music, it can be quite a challenge to choose a concert. But I was lucky enough to record a beautiful video with Música Temprana for the upcoming festival. A small private concert was not excluded. The calming voices of the ensemble, accompanied by graceful instruments, made me sit in silence and wonder for an hour. For the enthusiast, but also for the new discoverer of early music, a beautiful recommendation: Música Temprana, and they perform no less than three times during Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht 2024.
Loni, Eindredacteur Tijdschrift Oude Muziek
Mara Winter c.s. - Tafsil: the unwritten map of love
Saturday, 24 August, at 15.00 in TivoliVredenburg, Cloud Nine
There are so many types of music on our planet, endlessly fascinating I find that. Through Spain, the transition from Western early music to a completely different musical universe is small. Then it turns out that the poetry of medieval troubadours and Hebrew and Persian poetry have a lot in common. I'm curious how flutist Mara Winter and her ensemble will interweave the music from these different cultures in their concert.
Marjolein, Redacteur Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht
María Cristina Kiehr & Ariel Abramovich – The outstanding Alonso Mudarra
Sunday, 25 August, at 22.30 in the Pieterskerk
The last concerts of the day, at 22.30, I always find magical. During the day, there's so much to do: multiple concerts at once, coziness in the festival center TivoliVredenburg, a mix of festival-goers and shoppers in the city center... Very nice, but sometimes chaotic and busy. The evening concerts almost feel like an intimate secret. I'm mainly looking forward to the concert of Ariel Abramovich and Maria Cristina Kiehr. The city is deserted, the peace has returned, and in the beautiful Pieterskerk, two angelic voices sound... An absolute recommendation: an atmosphere that stays with you and that I long for every year!
Judith, Office manager
Tasto Solo/ Guillermo Pérez - Art Subtillior in Spain
Sunday, 25 August, 15.00 at the Pieterskerk
Just as a top chef extracts the most seductive flavors from ingredients with refined dishes, so do you experience the most captivating enchantment through the music of Ars Subtilitor.
Meta, Producent Festival Oude Muziek Tournees
Euskal Barrokensemble/ Enrike Solinís – El amor burjo – revisited
Monday, 26 August, at 15.00 in TivoliVredenburg, Hertz
I'm very curious about this concert. I know De Falla's music well and it seems very exciting to hear it in a Baroque/Renaissance version. The sounds transport you smack in the middle of a Spanish square in the evening, where you sit in the shade enjoying a glass of wine with friends and with this music in the background. Sounds fantastic!
Hitske, Artistiek planner
Cantoría - Villanescas by Guerrero
Wednesday, 28 August, 15.00 at the Pieterskerk
Cantoría, a young ensemble that presented themselves for the first time at our festival last year. And how! With an incredibly enjoyable concert where the fresh voices and storytelling abilities of the singers stood out enormously. They have truly proven themselves, and despite being at the beginning of their international career, they are already Artists in Residence at our festival. Of all the concerts, I am most looking forward to this XL variant. A vocal ensemble from Catalonia, extra large, with music from the Spanish Renaissance – what more could you want at a festival with the theme of Seville!
Fenneke, Producent Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht
Anthony Romaniuk – Beyond the silence
Wednesday, 28 August, at 22.30 in TivoliVredenburg, Cloud Nine
I choose this concert because of the special Cristofori fortepiano in a rather exciting combination with a Steinway grand piano. As a producer, I love challenges, and getting a Cristofori fortepiano onto one of our stages during the festival is a small challenge. A small production challenge that I love, and that makes this concert immediately interesting; How will Anthony make the instrument sound during the concert and how will the collaboration with the Steinway come to fruition?
Wilmer, Kaartverkoop Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht
The Harp Consort – Luz y Norte
Friday, 30 August, at 17.00 in TivoliVredenburg, Hertz
In the company of Jordi Savall, harpist Andrew Lawrence-King is often found on the Utrecht festival stage. I'm very excited that after a long time, he's bringing his own ensemble, The Harp Consort. And not with just any program: Luz y Norte meant not only their own breakthrough 30 years ago, but also groundbreaking for the performance of Spanish and South American Baroque repertoire. With, in addition to the harp, a battery of roaring guitars and other string instruments, this concert promises to be a true spectacle!
Inge, Marketing & Communicatie Early Music Television
Orkest van de Achttiende Eeuw & Arthur Japin - Haydn's Seven last words
Saturday, 31 August, at 11.00 in TivoliVredenburg, Grote Zaal
Not Seville, but the southern port city of Cádiz is the focus of this concert program. In front of the Cathedral of Santo Rosario, Joseph Haydn composed his Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze, reportedly the work the composer himself loved the most. During the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht 2024, the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century approaches the original setting for which the piece was written with the help of author Arthur Japin – with a reading between each
Renée, Publiekswerker Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht
Opera Omnia/ Isaac Pulet - Vaya de fiesta: Baroque from Spanish America
Saturday, 31 August, 17.00 at the Jacobikerk
I must confess that I haven't experienced Opera Omnia live before, but the description of their concert intrigued me; poetry, emotion, and theatricality are the elements that appeal to me the most in live performances, and this group seems to possess a good dose of these ingredients. Isaac Pulet mentioned in a previous concert that with Opera Omnia they aim to erase the overly serious character often attached to early music, emphasizing that they are above all a group of friends who enjoy themselves on stage. I look forward to being taken along as part of the audience!
Vera, Marketing & Communicatiemanager Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht
Camerata Trajectina – The best of the finest: the anniversary tour
Sunday, 1 September, 17.30 at TivoliVredenburg, Hertz
Ah, Camerata Trajectina. As an Utrechter, this ensemble holds a special place in my early music heart. Their concerts are always a grand celebration and top-notch, as was recently witnessed during the Festival Oude Muziek Tournees. As a student of musicology, I even had lessons from their founder Louis Peter Grijp, and I am hugely impressed by their tireless dedication to forgotten Dutch repertoire. It's an immense honor that they will celebrate their 50th anniversary with us.