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World premiere

Atlas Orchestra

ZaterdagMatinee x Holland Festival

Joël Bons, Atlas Orkest

Copyright information:Foppe Schut/Oranjewoud Festival

The Atlas Orchestra is a new collective consisting of over forty musicians from various cultural backgrounds. It originates from the Atlas Ensemble, which was founded by Joël Bons in 2002. Related stringed, plucked, wind and percussion instruments from China, Japan, Korea, India, Iran, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Syria, Turkey, and Europe together form an exciting and inspiring sonic palette. Never before had these 'descendants' been united in one orchestra. Now they come together in all their musical diversity in a completely new composition: Atlas Orchestra.


For Nomaden, a predecessor to this work, Joël Bons was awarded the 2019 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, the 'Nobel Prize for music'.


'I imagine a large group of players from all corners of the world, each with different instruments, a wide range of colours and cultures that finds expression in various formations, forging unique relationships.'

– Joël Bons 


The concert by the Atlas Orchestra is a co-production with the Oranjewoud Festival, Atlas Ensemble, NTR ZaterdagMatinee, Stichting Atlas & Co, and percussion ensemble HIIIT. In recent years, the Oranjewoud Festival has presented various projects with Bons and his musicians—a series of experiments and discoveries that now culminate in this composition, premiering at the Holland Festival. As a prelude, a special Atlas Festival will take place on June 14 and 15, 2025, during the Oranjewoud Festival.



Nomads had its premiere in 2016 and was a highlight at several festivals: the Cello Biënnale Amsterdam, November Music, Soundsofmusic, Venice Biennale.

  

In 2004, the Holland Festival invited the Atlas Ensemble as its ensemble in residence for three weeks. This programme included workshops, master classes and concerts with a traditional, non-Western repertoire. There were also premieres of new works by composers like Frangiz Ali-Zade, Bun-Ching Lam, Jack Body, Stefano Bellon, Artjom Kim, Javanshir Guliev and Evrim Demirel. 

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dates

Sat June 21 2:15 PM

prices

  • default including drink from € 41
  • CJP/student/scholar incl. a drink € 41

information

  • English surtitles: English

  • 1 hour 15 minutes

Introduction:

Would you like more background information? Then visit the introduction by Frederike Bernsten at 1:40 PM (language: Dutch).

documentary:

Atlas - a dream of Joël Bons


In 2024, NTR Klassiek, together with 24 classics, made the documentary Atlas - a dream of Joël Bons. In it, the members of the Atlas Ensemble from all over the world are followed, displaying their very first meeting with each other and the preparations for their concert during the Oranjewoud Festival 2024. The documentary can be seen on NPO Start.

  • Atlas Orkest

  • Atlas Orkest

  • Atlas Orkest

  • Atlas Orkest

  • Atlas Orkest

  • Atlas Orkest

Credits

music Joël Bons conductor Ed Spanjaard musicians Atlas Orchestra daegum Hyelim Kim flute/piccolo Maria Cristina González duduk/zurna Gevorg Dabaghian duduk/recorder Raphaela Danksagmüller guanzi/suona Guo Yahzi piri/taepyeonso Gamin Kang kushnai/surnai Shavkat Matyakubov oboe/English horn Ainhoa Pérez Etxepare bassoon Pedro Antonio Méndez Pérez clarinet Jelmer de Moed basset horn/bass clarinet Jaime Peña Martínez sheng Zhang Meng, Zifan Dai shō player Naomi Sato uilleann pipes Michael Boere trombone Michael Boere pipa Fu Xixu tar Elcin Nagijev ud Nizar Rohana zheng Li Liangzi qanun Bassem Alkhoury cimbalom Dani Luca erhu Yan Jiemin, Zhao Yuanchun kamancha Elshan Mansurov, Huseyn Nagijev violin Cordelia Paw, Marijke van Kooten kemençe Binnaz Çelik sarangi Yuji Nakagawa zhonghu Peng Chang viola Lotus de Vries cello Ketevan Toinishvili, Kalle de Bie double bass Dario Calderone, Pietro Elia Barcellona vibraphone/percussion Niels Meliefste dulcimer/percussion Mariana Soroka marimba/percussion Gonçalo Martins assistant conductor Chi-Chun artistic director Oranjewoud Festival Yoram Ish-Hurwitz producer Francesca Clements coproduction Oranjewoud Festival, Holland Festival, NTR ZaterdagMatinee, HIIIT with support from Performing Arts Fund NL, het Cultuurfonds, Brook Foundation, Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne introduction by Frederike Berntsen, Joël Bons

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