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Kobra Ensemble Performs “What the Woof” at Serenade! Choral Festival in DC
From June 23 until June 27, the Kobra Ensemble performs What the Woof at the Serenade! Choral Festival in Washington DC.
Thu, Jun 23 - Mon, Jun 27 2016
From June 23 until June 27, the Kobra Ensemble will perform during the Serenade! Choral Festival in Washington DC. The six ladies of Kobra collaborated with stage director Jorinde Keesmaat for the music performance piece ‘What the Woof’. Kobra will give other concerts and various workshops in Washington D.C. that week too.
With a mix of early and contemporary classical works, folk music and close harmony, Kobra always succeeds to impresses audiences with their amazing chamber music abilities. During the festival, the Dutch ensemble will perform both in Washington DC and Bethesda, MD.
Dates
- June 24, 7:30 PM: A Capella Celebration on Capitol Hill
Lutheran Church of the Reformation, Washington DC. - June 25, 10 PM: Celebrating Women’s Voices
Church of Epiphany, Washington DC. - June 26, 3 PM: Best of Serenade! at Strathmore-Untraveled Worlds
The Music Centre at Strathmore, Bethesda, MD.
Click here for tickets.
About the Kobra Ensemble
The Kobra Ensemble consists of Ingrid Doude van Troostwijk, Sterre Konijn, Lea Klarenbeek, Lonneke Kegels, Saskia Voorbach and Pitou Nicolaes. Since its founding in 2010, they have developed a unique style, which is characterized by a diverse musicality and a lively stage presence. The singers of Kobra met at the National Children’s and Youth Choir. Although they have their basis in classical music, they share a great musical curiosity. This can be heard in the diverse musical and vocal styles that are involved at the performances. Kobra is constantly looking for new audiences by performing on several stages, events and festivals, including performances in Concertgebouw and the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ. The ensemble crosses artistic boundaries by collaborating with other art forms: several costume designers, visual artists, video artists, instrumentalists, composers and arrangers. Not only is the audience so surprised, even the Kobra itself repeatedly discover new sides of themselves.
About Jorinde Keesmaat
Jorinde Keesmaat is a freelance stage director of opera performances and staged classical concerts in the Netherlands and abroad. Jorinde Keesmaat is appointed Guest Director-in-Residence at the Center for Contemporary Opera in New York for the period 2016-2018. Keesmaat creates multi-disciplinary performances that have a search for relationships between the individual spectator and the actors and musicians. Conventions as well as the established boundaries between classical concerts, opera and theatre performances have moved to the background. In addition to regular theatre and concert halls her performances regularly take place in unconventional venues.
About What the Woof
The theatrical concert What the woof not only pays tribute to the arts movement De Stijl but also to the Dadaist soirees of the beginning of the last century. Fastforward exactly one century and Kobra wonders: what motivated the artists at that time? During this performance, Kobra is looking for the balance between antiart and art, between aesthetics and nonaesthetics, both in images as in music. What the Woof is a vocal response to the contemporary society, with music written by a.o. Kurt Schwitters and Béla Bartók. Just like De Stijl, What the woof wants to challenge the audience: what is a desirable society? What is beauty? And are women indeed merely suitable for the performance?
About Classical Movements
Classical Movements is a premier concert tour company for the world’s great professional symphony orchestras and choirs, as well as youth orchestras, universities and conservatories. Classical Movements works in 144 countries and has become the leader in understanding the needs of quality music performance groups since our inception in 1992, arranging exciting, meaningful and life changing choir tours and orchestra tours. In addition, Classical Movements also regularly commissions new music and produces four International Choral Festivals as well as an International Young Artist Opera and Orchestral Festival.