Museum choir

Photo: Niek Tijsse Klasen

The Van Abbemuseum Choir was founded in 2013 by Willy de Rooij. It is a choir of amateurs, only the conductor is a professional musician. Like any other amateur choir, it has a board and the members pay contributions, the conductor is employed by the choir. For the rest, the choir is facilitated by the museum.

The members of the choir are in some way connected to the museum. They are a volunteer, employee or Friend. In the first year the choir had about ten members. After five years there were more than twenty. Since the temporary closure of the museum due to the corona pandemic, a number of choir members have said goodbye to the choir.

After ten years of artistic leadership, Willy de Rooij stepped down as conductor of the choir a few years ago. Since September 2022, the choir has been led by Jan Snel.

Repertoire

In its repertoire, the choir tries to be a mirror for the museum. The Van Abbemuseum wants to be a decolonial and demodern museum (see Themes on this site). This can be heard in the choice of the songs we sing. We also sing classical music, but most of our repertoire come from all over the world and are songs that celebrate the human condition.

The eight songs that eight artists wrote for us, in commission by the Van Abbemuseum, occupy a special place in our repertoire.

Performances

In principle, the choir performs in the museum. We do this now and then at the openings of exhibitions, we give a Musical Tour about six times a year and we have given concerts in the museum together with other choirs and musicians for years under the title The Van Abbemuseum Choir invites... Also outside the museum we are a regular calling card for the museum. And sometimes we perform somewhere because we just enjoy it. Under the Archives heading below you will find descriptions of some of our most memorable performances.

Musical Tour

During a Musical Tour the choir sings at some works of art. An expert tour guide provides information before singing for each of these works of art, explains what the artist may have intended and explains why the choir has an affinity with this work of art. During singing, a space of sound is created around the work of art, in which visitors, choir and tour guide are included. You will experience the work of art in a new way.

A Musical Tour lasts about an hour and has room for about 15 visitors. More information and the option to register can be found below under the heading Upcoming events.

Research

In 2019, Rachel Katherina Surijata completed her BA Anthropology and Media studies at the University of London with a thesis in which the Van Abbemuseum choir plays a leading role. On holiday in the Netherlands she heard the choir sing during a visit to the Van Abbe Museum. She was surprised that a group of amateurs could practice art, without being talk of education, in an institution that only deals with art professionally. In Sound in Museums as Curatorial Practice. Learning about the use of sound in museums from the Van Abbemuseum Choir, she investigated how our choir, or music and sound in general, within a museum seems to make the hegemony of artists and art historians something negotiable and how that creates space for multiple voices. Her thesis can be consulted in the museum's Library and read online here Sound in Museums as Curatorial Practice.