The colourful music is a mix of elements from a broad range of styles including folk, classical song form, cabaret and jazz. These elements strive to give a voice to those around the world who are unable to speak freely for themselves. A collection of 70 different instruments from around the world is used in the work with only 17 musicians on hand to play them all. This requires a high degree of virtuosity from the ensemble. Voices contains 22 songs written on texts by writers ranging from Ho Chi Minh, Herberto Padilla and Bertolt Brecht to F.C. Delius and Heinrich Heine. 

The relevance of the piece’s thematic focus to contemporary culture was the reason the New European Ensemble chose to collaborate with Amnesty International on this special project.

During this spectacular performance the New European Ensemble will bring Amnesty’s message on human rights and Henze’s musical communication of this message together.

The photo exhibition ‘Focus on Human Rights’ created by Amnesty International will be shown in the foyer of Theater aan het Spui before the concert. The exhibit is made up of pictures from all parts of the world, made by renowned photographers. The pictures illustrate the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. During the performance these and other first-rate pictures from Amnesty’s collection will be projected.

The concert on March 13th is the final performance of the day for the 15th edition of  ‘Dag in de Branding’ (festival for new music in the Hague).
Amnesty and the New European Ensemble have also created a large-scale educational project for the Haagse Hogeschool to reach youth and inform them about human rights issues.

For more information:
Visit our Agenda for information on purchasing tickets
www.dagindebranding.nl
www.theateraanhetspui.nl