Early in the morning, the Oude Kerk is a meditative oasis in the city. Since 2017, on every first Friday of the month at 8 a.m., when the rising sun casts its light through the church’s towering windows and the neighbourhood slowly wakes up, visitors can enjoy the Silence music programme. The concerts celebrate the acoustics and space of the Oude Kerk, which invites mostly young, experimental musicians. There are no fixed seats; visitors are welcome to walk around and discover what the music sounds like in different places in the church.

Silence #30 was a concert that took place in the Oude Kerk in response to Mark Mulders’ work for The World After. On 30 March 2020, in an interview with Mister Motley, Marc Mulders mentioned the end of male dominance, and talked about designing space, shaping silence, the activity of weaving, whispering, reshaping thoughts, the love of God.

'L’apparition de l’eglise éternelle' by Olivier Messiaen is an overwhelming sound vision by a young composer and organ player, a vision of the presence of what the one calls God, whereas the other is lost for words. Music is for Messiaen like stained glass: colour harmonies, divine stories brought into the light. 'Song of Songs' by Japanese composer Karen Tanaka is a composition for cello and electronics, written alongside the Bible book 'Wisdom of Solomon', in which heavenly wisdom is represented as a woman.

Materials

Instruments, organ pipes

Show gallery or Scroll for more