RFO with Karina Canellakis - Photo: Eduardus Lee

Eric Whitacre returns at the Groot Omroepkoor

Programme

  • Whitacre Three flower songs
  • British Five flower songs
  • Whitacre The sacred veil

The hottest thing in choral music Eric Whitacre makes a big impression as a conductor and as a composer, although not everyone is immediately charmed by his music. With the Groot Omroepkoor he proves once again: the fuzz is not about nothing'. Fusion of classical and popular music Critics have labelled his work: a fusion of classical and modern popular music that gets under your skin. He is both vilified for his populist music and praised for being the hottest thing in choral music. Eric Whitacre himself claims to have become a conductor and composer by accident, but his choral works such as Go, lovely rose, Water Night, Cloudburst, Sleep and The Seal Lullaby have become part of the standard choral repertoire worldwide. Moreover, the Groot Omroepkoor could hardly wish for a conductor with a better understanding of the human voice. Commissioned composition: The sacred veil The sacred veil, written for the NTR Saturday Matinee and others, once again contains all the ingredients that make the composer Whitacre as popular as he is controversial. He based himself on a moving cycle of poems by his friend Tony Silvestri, who used it to deal with the death of his young wife. Both the text and the music do not celebrate death as an end, but as a path through a mirror, a path to another dimension.

Date:
Friday, January 16, 2026
Time:
2:15 pm
Intermission:
No
Location:
The Royal Concertgebouw

Amsterdam
-
Large Hall

Performers

Netherlands Radio Choir
Go to the website
Eric Whitacre
Conductor
Quirine Viersen
Cello
Nicolas van Poucke
Piano

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