Jorinde Keesmaat Guest Director-in-Residence at Center for Contemporary Opera NYC

Starting off this October, Dutch stage director Jorinde Keesmaat is invited by the Center for Contemporary Opera (CCO) in New York to direct a series of four productions over a three-year period.

Three of the works will be by Dutch composers, while she will also stage one work from an American composer.  The residency kicks off with a two-folded production, consisting of two works by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen: “Anaïs Nin” and “Odysseus’ Women.” This production will also be brought to the Muziekgebouw aan het IJ in Amsterdam on December 9th, 2016.

The core of this three-year collaboration between CCO and Jorinde contains four fully staged opera productions. The well-known American dramaturge Cori Ellison, and composer Eric Salzman will serve as mentors during her residency.

Besides the four productions, the Center will also involve Jorinde in the workshops that are held to develop new opera’s. She will work with American video- and costume designers and musical directors, and will be directly involved in the casting of all projects. In addition to her directing responsibilities, the CCO will invite Jorinde to join their artistic staff with the title “Guest Director in Residence.”

About Jorinde Keesmaat

Jorinde Keesmaat is a stage director of theatrical projects, (opera) performances and staged classical concerts. Jorinde creates multi-disciplinary performances that have a search for relationships between the individual spectator and the actors and musicians. Within her projects she looks for possibilities of an individual approach to the chosen audience. Conventions as well as the established boundaries between classical concerts, opera and theatre performances have moved to the background. The performances are merely characterized by a cross-fertilization, stylization and abstraction of art disciplines. In addition to regular theatre and concert halls her performances regularly take place in a lighthouse, factory, staircase, water stations, and regional assemblies.

In 2003, Jorinde graduated at the College of Arts ArtEZ, theatre direction department. Her graduation performance “The Honey Makers” was shown during the one-act play festival “Vital Signs” at the Vital Theatre in New York. After graduating she made, among other performances: “Terminal” (Schouwburg The Hague, 2006), a youth theatre performance “Troje-Argos 0-1” (6x Oresteia, Toneelgroep Amsterdam, 2007), the perfomance “Dobre Tanie” (2008), the location performance “Carrefour” (Tamtam, Toneelgroep Amsterdam 2010) and the musical performance “Het Hemels Leven,” on Dutch Memorial Day at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (in collaboration with Grachtenfestival, Amsterdam Ensemble, Ramsey Nasr, 2011).

Jorinde is the permanent director of the concert series Tracks at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Besides her projects she organizes a four-part series of art festivals every year, like The Water Festival – Water in Kunst (water theme, 2009) and Festival Kunstlicht (fire theme, 2010). For the first edition of this festival she made the short film “Off Shoulders.”