Doorstromingen is the commissioned composition for Voices of the City by the Dutch Student Chamber Choir, crafted by the young and versatile composer and multimedia artist Celia Swart. The work portrays a fragment of the lives of residents in a city neighbourhood, where local inhabitants flow in and out in waves.
At the outset, voices interweave into a polyphonic canon. This tapestry disintegrates with a sudden influx of new residents. These movements find expression in both music and choreography (by Mirte Bulsink). The accordion, played by Ilse Kok, signifies the colour the city is losing – the soul that vanishes. Initially, it will play freely and expansively, but as it begins to dominate, the accordionist’s fire will also be extinguished. Will this new group of isolated individuals manage to connect and forge a new form of relationship?
Something glimmers among the stones. It is the city; there is life. But what defines the city? Is it the people or the buildings? That which is, or that which has been?
The city serves as a hub of community, bustling conviviality, music, tradition, inspiration, and new scents, colours, and flavours on every street corner, offering space for growth and development. The city can become your home if you claim your own space. Yet, it can also be a centre of loneliness and isolation, where one feels alone amidst the throng, unsafe in a cold, artificial environment. A place of incessant hum, thrum, and squeak, a whirlwind of relentlessly rushing metal.
Centuries of history, millions of people, and encroaching modernity jostle within the limited space. In Voices of the City, the singers of the 2025 Dutch Student Chamber Choir navigate the city’s history to carve out a place in contemporary urban life.
In a diverse programme of modern and ancient choral music, 32 participants sing, on one hand, about the challenges city dwellers have confronted for centuries, such as displacement, isolation, devastation, and overstimulation. On the other hand, we also celebrate the festivities, togetherness, and diversity of the metropolis. After all, the city is a realm of contradictions.
Under the direction of conductor Lodewijk van der Ree and supported by a remarkable Artistic Team (comprising a rehearsal director, accordionist, commissioned composer, vocal coach, and director), the NSK will employ every creative resource at its disposal to create a true Gesamtkunstwerk. In a series of 10 concerts across 10 cities, audiences will be immersed in the cacophony of the city, whether it resonates with the present or echoes from a few centuries past.
Composers in the crosshairs of our attention