Description
‘Fathers’ is the live recording of the 2006 New Year’s Concert by VARA and the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, held on 1 January in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The theme for 2006 was fathers, and on musicians who had come to the Netherlands as refugees. Dad, will you come and play football? Dad, can I borrow some money? Dad, you’re my hero! Dad you just don’t get it at all, do you? Dad, you’re never around! Who is my father? What makes a father: creating a child, or raising one? What about one’s ‘Fatherland’? Desire is the father of thought…
Around one-hundred children and young adults took part in this year’s annual composition competition: writing, rapping, singing and performing works about their fathers as stay-at-home dads, hard workers, magicians, happy-go-lucky fellows, or Fathers in Heaven. The international guest performers came from afar: Rizgar from Iraq, the seven performers from The Revival Okapi from DR Congo and Angola, Nasir and his son Stas from Afghanistan and Sudan. All fathers, singing and playing works about their fathers and fatherlands, which they have not seen in some time. They are refugees, and have already been living in the Netherlands for several years. Some were allowed to stay, while others are still waiting for a decision or are set to leave. The final guest is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who celebrated his 250th birthday in 2006 and had an uncommonly ambitious father.
Soloists Rizgar, The Revival Okapi, Angola, Nasir, Stas, Yasser, Mogash
Young composers Gideon Tazelaar, Wouter Schoone, Jet Zoon, Rianne Botma
