Welcome to the Netherlands Radio Choir

Celso Antunes prolongs contract

Wednesday 16 December 2009

On Monday 14 December 2009 Celso Antunes has signed for the renewal of his contract with the Netherlands Radio Choir until the 2011-2012 season. The signing happened in the presence of the entire choir, manager / deputy director Monica Damen and general director Anton Kok.

The continuation of the collaboration between Celso Antunes and the Netherlands Radio Choir has met with great enthusiasm of all parties concerned. In August 2008 Antunes took over as chief conductor from Simon Halsey, who became permanent guest conductor at that moment. Quality and versatility of the Netherlands Radio Choir are regularly being praised by the press.

Grandeur

In the integral performance of Rossini’s ‘Guillaume Tell’ on 12 December last the Netherlands Radio Choir provided ‘finely detailed nature tableaus ’ (Bela Luttmer in ‘de Volkskrant’), and there was ‘grandeur’ due to the ‘fantastically playing Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the likewise formidable Netherlands Radio Choir’ (Eddie Vetter in ‘De Telegraaf’).

World class

Earlier that month Celso Antunes had rehearsed the choir and participated in the performance of Mahler’s ‘Second Symphony’ with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra led by Mariss Jansons. It resulted in an ‘intense Mahler’ according to Thiemo Wind (De Telegraaf), who described the contribution of the Netherlands Radio Choir as ´world class´. ‘…there are not many choirs able to imitate such concentrated and homogenous singing which is even audible in a subdued voice.’

Swiss visitors

Next to his activities with the Netherlands Radio Choir Celso Antunes is regularly being asked to guest conduct prominent choirs in for instance Stuttgart, London, Berlin, Prague and Brussels. Since September 2008 he has been professor of choral conducting at the Haute École de Musique de Génève. During the week of 14 December students of choral conducting from Geneva will be the Radio Choir’s guests. They will be present at rehearsals and witness the way such a large professional choir – which apparently is unknown to the Swiss - operates.

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