Each year Gerliene and Sven commission a composer to write an original work for a new music ensemble.
2026
1:
Hildur Guðnadóttir:
Passing Remark
Performers:
Students from the conservatories of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Maastricht, coached by Het Muziek
A co-commission with the Holland Festival and Musica Sacra
World premiere:
21 June 2026, Westerpark, Amsterdam
‘I love listening to their perspectives, and hopefully giving them a bit of courage to trust their own. That’s also what I find so inspiring about projects like Passing Remark, creating spaces where students can meet artists, experiment, and work beyond the usual frameworks. For many conservatory students, that’s a huge adventure, because those institutions – as the name suggests – can be quite conservative. They’re often taught there’s a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to do things. But I really believe there isn’t. There are so many ways to approach a single note. It’s all about point of view.’ – Hildur Guðnadóttir
2:
New commission:
TBA
Performers:
Ensemble Klang
2025
1:
Germaine Sijstermans:
Yareta
Performers:
Ensemble Modelo62
Installation and performances:
April/May 2026
‘Yareta is a site-specific installation with composition, on view for three weeks this spring at Quartair in The Hague. The installation is open to all visitors during opening hours, with the music playing through four speakers. Visitors are invited to wander freely through the space; listening, watching, thinking, lazing, and daydreaming.Yareta is composed as an open score, making each of the quartet’s three live performances a unique experience. Central to the music are timbre and sound textures, and a continuous interplay with perception itself, for both musicians and listeners.’ – Germaine Sijstermans
2:
Giuseppe Chiari:
Intervalli
Performer:
Reinier van Houdt
Recorded for release by Alga Marghen in 2026
‘The piece Intervalli (1951-1958) by the mathematician-trained Fluxus artist Giuseppe Chiari can be seen as the first forgotten, consistently minimal composition. No themes, motifs or pitches: intervals are the only material and all twelve are ingeniously conjugated in twelve processes that astonish with their diversity of timbre and movement.’ – Reinier van Houdt
2024
1:
Eliane Radigue / Carol Robinson:
Occam Delta XXIII
Performers:
Ensemble Klang
A co-commission with the London Contemporary Music Festival and Wigmore Hall
World premiere:
17 January 2025, Wigmore Hall, London
‘Occam Delta XXIII grew from the observation of gently crisscrossing waves, seen with Joey, Erik-Jan and Anton from a North Sea jetty one day in July. Like each piece in Occam Ocean, it demands ultra-sensitive interaction between the musicians as they generate and subtly modulate shifting harmonic fields. The three instruments morph into a single undulating sound mass that evolves ever so gradually through various expressive states. The music is abstract, radical and absolutely essential.’ – Éliane Radigue / Carol Robinson
2:
Karen Willems:
Without Papers
Performers:
Ensemble Klang with Karen Willems
World premiere:
11 January 2025, Korzo, The Hague
‘Without Papers is a collaboration with Ensemble Klang, to explore the boundaries between experimental and contemporary music which resulted in a dynamic fusion. It was intense, rich and the emotive expression could only succeed by not writing out scores. That’s a nice feeling that we must cherish and share together!’ – Karen Willems
2023
Clara de Asís:
Mirage
Performers:
Ensemble Modelo62
World premiere:
2 December 2023, Paleiskerk, The Hague
‘Mirage is based on the premise that the emergence of form results from specific modes of listening. An ensemble composed of multi-tuned chimes creates a perceptual space of subtlety, friction, and density. Between zones of indeterminacy and precise instructions, the score summons all the musicians into the creative process of this sensory experience.’ – Clara de Asís
2022
Fani Konstantinidou:
Time is Not a Revolution
Performers:
Ensemble MAZE
World premiere:
26 November 2022, Splendor, Amsterdam
‘Time is Not a Revolution has undetermined duration, inconsistent substance, and unpredictable outcome. It encapsulates the standpoint of those time-blind in a time-centric society. Unavoidably, it becomes a sarcastic statement towards the notion of time, manifesting the vanity of our most fundamental social construct.’ – Fani Konstantinidou