Chamber choir NEXT, together with guitarist Stefan Gerritsen, explores challenging contemporary music in which the versatile power of the voice merges with the exclamations of the guitar

Programme: works for choir and guitar by Villa-Lobos, Nobre, Vasks, Micháns, Dykstra, Stroope, Van Woudenberg, Ešenvalds, Brouwers and a world premiere by Diederik van der Laag

Chamber choir NEXT explores special compositions for choir and guitar in Llanto de la guitarra (‘cries of the guitar’) together with the versatile guitarist Stefan Gerritsen. Under the direction of Fokko Oldenhuis, voice and string melt together in a program based on contemporary compositions for choir and guitar by mostly Dutch composers, some of which are rarely performed. For example, Lowell Dykstra gives voice to the mysterious attraction of the guitar on the poetic words of Federico García Lorca in La guitarra, Rijndert van Woudenberg lets choir, guitar and glass organ go together and in Yanomami by Marlos Nobres the cries of an indigenous Brazilian tribe can be heard after the death of their shaman. Diederik van der Laag is writing a new commissioned work for choir and guitar for this programme.