the digital experience

We won’t yet be able to welcome the public for live events in March. Therefore, Klarafestival is going completely digital. From 13 to 22 March, you will be able to enjoy no fewer than 12 audiovisual projects on our revamped website. As usual, you can also enjoy them via Klara: on the radio or through the Klara app, as well as on the website. Our performances can also be watched via VRT NU as well as Proximus Pickx. In addition, nine performances will feature in the programming of the new pop-up culture broadcaster Podium 19 from 25 to 28 March.

In these exceptional times, Klarafestival is able to count on loyal partners. We thank BOZAR, Flagey, Muntpunt and Passa Porta Festival for the artistic cooperation. Also our funders and partners KPMG, Yakult, National Lottery, Proximus and OMER for their unfailing support. 

In an age when quality recordings from the classical repertoire are just a click away, Klarafestival 2021 will be focusing on undiscovered work, new creations and symbioses of sound and image. While Belgian talent will set the tone, we are also pleased to be featuring some international guests. Here are some of the highlights in advance:  

- The festival kicks off with Songs of Nature on 13 March. In this scenic production directed by Shuang Zou, B’Rock and the soprano Sunhae Im reflect on man’s perception of nature in the baroque period. It takes the form of a dialogue between the short, brand-new compositions by Wim Henderickx and Handel's intimate song cycle, the Neun Deutsche Arien.

- Listening to the change is an interactive concert by the STEGREIF orchestra. This youthful Berlin improvisation orchestra is conducted by Juri De Marco and has a unique gift for keeping its finger firmly on the pulse of the times. They relate contemporary European stories to the accompaniment of a number of folk melodies. Resilience is a recurring theme and the concert climaxes with an unorthodox Beethoven celebration. Live from Berlin.

- The last project to be completed by the late conductor, composer and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw was an arrangement of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. The Brussels ensemble Het Collectief will be performing this distinctive arrangement with Lucile Richardot and Yves Saelens as solo voices, under the musical direction of Gregor Mayrhofer.

- Klarafestival has invited a number of composers to write new works. They have also been commissioned to work with visual artists and filmmakers. Sound & Vision will premiere all these brand-new works presenting this symbiosis of sound and vision. They will include works by Saskia Venegas Aernouts, Frederik Croene, Eva-Maria Houben, Frederik Neyrinck and Vessel (Sebastian Gainsborough).

- In partnership with the Passa Porta Festival, Klarafestival asked the well-known Dutch writer Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (author of Grand Hotel Europe) to write a new idyll. Frederik Neyrinck presented the text to the soprano Lore Binon, narrator Josse De Pauw and a number of instrumentalists from I SOLISTI. Its rendition in the performance De oude woorden van een tekst die komen gaat (the old words of a text that will come) on 22 March will close the Klarafestival 2021 and, at the same time, mark the beginning of the Passa Porta Festival.

We will soon be announcing the full programme for Klarafestival 2021. Collaborations with the Brussels Philharmonic, Ictus and Collegium Vocale Gent are just some additional performances you can also look forward to. We are also exceptionally proud to be able to include a concert by the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra in our programming. More about this later.

Register now

From March 13 until 22, we will present forgotten gems, great Romantic classics, plenty of new creations and also new, young talent. You’re welcome on our website to explore this digital experience. If you want to enjoy the free digital concerts, please don't forget to register in advance. Register via www.Klarafestival.be/live and watch the entire festival in optimal audio and video quality for free.

Images

© Jury Heinsch

© Bjorn Comhaire