Louis Andriessen wrote De Staat as a reflection on the relationship between music and politics. In response, Gaudeamus, Musica Festival (Strasbourg), Asko|Schönberg, Ensemble Klang and Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ invited seventeen very diverse European composers to write a text-based or graphic score on this theme. The scores will be shown to the public in an exhibition and some will be performed by musicians of Asko|Schönberg.

In addition, as part of the U-DECIDE project, Utrecht school children will be asked to make their own musical creation in response to De Staat, and with the help of experts they will be allowed to invent, design, record, mix and edit, with voice, musical instruments and electronics.

Re: De Staat was made possible in part by additional financial contributions from the Performing Arts Fund NL and the Cultuurfonds.

With contributions from:

Pelumi Adejumo
Zeno van den Broek
Thanasis Deligiannis
Cathy van Eck
Joy Guidry
Valérian Guillaume
Ted Hearne
Janne Kosmos
Dmitri Kourliandski
Johannes Kreidler
Moor Mother
Genevieve Murphy
Keir Neuringer
Stephanie Pan
François Sarhan
Maya Verlaak
Jennifer Walshe