From miniatures to masterpieces and from Bach to Wantenaar, the Residentie Orkest offers a host of musicians and repertoire from different cultures and backgrounds in the 2023-2024 season. The diversity of ingredients promises a colorful program.

Sven Arne Tepl, general and artistic director of the Residentie Orkest, likes to take his audience on a musical exploration of different cultures. Diversity and versatility are therefore central to the programming. 'We want to surprise and inspire our audience time and again, both with a broad and innovative repertoire and with guest soloists and conductors from completely different backgrounds. We go on a world tour in our own concert hall Amare.'

Top pianists series

New to the range of regular series such as Symphonic Friday and the Sunday matinee is the Top Pianists series. 'The piano repertoire is vast and wide-ranging; there is much to choose from. We have some great soloists in house, including Denis Kozhukhin who plays Rachmaninov. And former artist in residence Yeol Eum Son is returning to The Hague.' New repertoire has also been considered: Ralph van Raat performs the piano concerto 'Prophecies of Stone' by John Luther Adams. Adams works a lot with soundscapes and is inspired by the nature of Alaska in particular.'

Auerbach Festival

With the famous composer Lera Auerbach, the orchestra is going to have a party. A birthday party, that is. To mark the fiftieth birthday of this pianist, composer and artist, the Residentie Orkest, together with the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, the Netherlands Chamber Choir and a number of other ensembles from The Hague, is organizing a weekend festival around the artistic jack-of-all-trades. 'Lera is a woman with boundless energy and countless ideas. She writes books, makes beautiful bronze sculptures, does skydiving, but with us she plays the Piano Concerto No. 20 by Mozart and conducts the Dutch premiere of her Fifth symphony. An artist with a language all her own, I look forward to seeing her.

Mainstays

Chief conductor Anja Bihlmaier and regular guest conductors Jun Märkl and Richard Egarr are frequent performers at Amare this season. "All three of these regular mainstays leave their own distinctive mark on the orchestra'. Since its opening, some work has been done on the concert hall's acoustics. 'The orchestra sound was just a little too bare, especially in the high registers such as the first violins. We did something about that and as a result, it has become one of the best halls in the country! Because the sound now mixes so beautifully, the sound image comes very close, as if you were looking directly into the score.'

Artist in residence

Czech violinist and former concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Josef Špaček brings the violin concertos of Dvořák, Beethoven and Berg. 'Josef is our artist in residence this season. An extraordinary musician who has a very wide repertoire.'

Into the neighborhood

'With projects like Portiekmuziek, in which the orchestra goes into the neighborhood, we want to connect with all residents of the city. We are helped by housing associations, care institutions and other partners. They indicate what is needed and we respond to that.' A good example are the concerts in the Julianakerk in the Transvaal neighborhood. 'Here the encounter between the musicians and local residents afterwards is sometimes more important than the concert itself. Such contact really does something. Over and over again.'

Take a look at residencyorchestra.com.