A breach in the Dyke - introduction
The Dutch identity is impossible to trace in the field of music as well. Foreigners do perceive a typically Dutch sobriety, control and humor, and especially the existence of many different styles. This great variety exists thanks to the eagerness and skill with which composers and improvisers hereabouts handle all kinds of musical, theatrical and visual possibilities, wherever they come from.
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Moscow, St. Petersburg and the rest of Russia
When, in the second half of the Nineteen Eighties, perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness) heralded the collapse of the Soviet Union, a free exchange of information and ideas with the West slowly but surely started to flow again. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 the last physical barrier between East and West had come down, and musicians, composers and musicologists from both worlds eagerly threw themselves into each other’s repertoire. In the havoc that fifty years of communist rule had wreaked, at least the conservatories and composers’ unions, ensembles and orchestras were still standing. Gaudeamus successfully strengthened the ties with the esteemed representatives of these institutions.
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innovative jazz festivals
Playing on the stage of a renowned foreign festival is good for the international career of any musician, and this holds true in the world of contemporary jazz as well. But how do you get there? The promoters of the Dutch Jazz Connection offer a helping hand, they bring Dutch jazz and improvising musicians to the attention of the artistic directors and programmers of progressive festivals all around the world. Most jazz festivals in Europe have joined the Europe Jazz Network (EJN). The representatives see each other at official meetings, but at least as often in an informal atmosphere, during festivals, for instance; colleagues from other continents are also regularly present there.
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promoting Dutch music abroad
A catchy name was still lacking for the program that Donemus (at the time still Muziekgroep Nederland) and Gaudeamus carried out in 1999-2004 with so-called HGIS-C funds:
Intensifying the promotion of Dutch contemporary music abroad. During the 2005-2007 period the program, actually a compilation of countless, mostly small-scale projects, was continued under the name A Breach in the Dike
, this time together with the Dutch Jazz Connection.
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