Dear Professor Einstein premieres at SNAAR festival

Albert Einstein himself thought it was crazy that people labelled him a ‘genius’. Why? Because he believed that he was simply more curious than others and was mainly concerned with finding answers to questions that adults no longer asked since they had passed their childhood.

During SNAAR festival on Saturday afternoon 28 May, the Nederlands Kamerkoor, together with the young talents of NKK NXT and five musicians, will sing a brand new chamber opera by Mathilde Wantenaar, based on correspondences between Einstein and children. An ode to curiosity and to the wonderful coincidence that plays a role in everyone's life.

Buy tickets for SNAAR festival here

With an afternoon ticket, you can attend both performances of Dear Professor Einstein at 15:30 and 16:30 and all other concerts except the evening concert. See the block schedule below.

Brodsky Quartet & Virpi Räisänen premier 'Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis: Hier ist ja lauter Nacht'

With the Brodsky Quartet, you can count on sophisticated and surprising programmes. Thursday 19 May (in Nijmegen) and Saturday 21 May (in Amsterdam) they join forces with Finnish mezzo-soprano Virpi Räisänen and perform works by Respighi, Shostakovich and Wantenaar.

The Nijmeegse Stichting voor Kamermuziek was supposed to celebrate its 70th anniversary in 2020. Now that we can finally enjoy live music in the concert hall again, a celebration will still be held with a concert by the world-renowned Brodsky Quartet and mezzo-soprano Virpi Räisänen. Among other things, they will perform a brand new composition in beautiful neoclassical by Mathilde Wantenaar. The Dutch composer has been making a name for herself for several years with inventive compositions that also appeal to a wide audience. Her composition ‘Seufzer’, for instance, written for soprano Johannette Zomer as part of her ‘Bach2Ways’ project, was extensively discussed in the radio programme ‘De Schatkamer’ by (at the time) Composer of the Fatherland Willem Jeths. In tonight's string quartet, she again touches on this theme of fear and despair that speaks from the text of Bach's 21st cantata. At two-thirds of the piece, notes from ‘Seufzer’ were given a place again. ‘There is a kind of shadow Baroque’ the composer tells us when asked ’there are Baroque-like passages, but also freer ones that could be called a-tonal. Some passages, on the contrary, are very soft and tonal, like at the end with the words ‘Erfreue Dich Seele’, but this is rudely broken up. The music becomes more barren, the breath, as it were, falters and what remains is pure oppression and desperation: ‘Hier ist ja lauter Nacht.’

Crowdfunding mini-opera: Dear Professor Einstein

On 28 May 2022, the first edition of SNAAR Festival will take place at TivoliVredenburg. This new festival brings together beautiful music and exciting science in unique performances, created especially for SNAAR by musicians and scientists. An ode to curiosity! The first edition will focus on one of the most famous scientists ever: Albert Einstein. Besides being a brilliant scientist, he was also a violinist and a great lover of music. Festival initiator and violinist Merel Vercammen found extraordinary correspondences between Einstein and children. Einstein knew how to answer children's small but also big questions with wisdom and simplicity. Great material for a mini-opera, which will premiere during SNAAR: Dear Professor Einstein.

Will you help us? 

We look forward to sharing Dear Professor Einstein with audiences. But composing, producing and performing such a performance is expensive. We are very happy to have support from a number of funds, partners and sponsors, but we are not there yet. Would you like to help us realise this special mini-opera? Then support our crowdfunding on Voordekunst here! Check out the fun quid pro quo on the right, as a thank you for your support! How about an exclusive meet-and-greet, an improvisation made especially for you or a private concert by Merel Vercammen? Many thanks and hope to see you at the first edition of SNAAR Festival!

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