World Premiere : AURORA

15 September 2023 – 20:15 Tivoli Vredenburg, Utrecht

For The Netherlands Radio Choir and The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
and chef conductor Karina Canellakis
At the opening concert of AVROTROS, Friday concert series
More information and tickets

AURORA

“Maybe we would have made it to heaven” ….

There is no story in AURORA. Only names, the names of boats rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean and the names of stars and constellations as an allegory for darkness and the night sky.

“Maybe we would have made it to heaven” is a sentence of a surviver of the deadly journey, that I read in an article on rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean sea.

When I was asked to reflect on the thematic association of “Wanderlust” to this composition, opening the AVROTROS Friday concert season 2023-2024, I could only think of the other face of a journey, I could only think of the night in the sea, of dreaming a new life, of dying for it.

“Wanderlust”:  the urge to leave, to roam, the desire to move letting go of here and now, traveling, seeking a fantasy, an unknown world, taking off to a new other life …