Spring Festival 2026

In the opening concert of the Spring Festival 2026 the Nieuwe Kerk will be turned into a living, breathing instrument. From intimate solo performances to collective creation, works explore how sound moves and connects us.

Sacred resonances and fragile gestures: bodies sing, pray, resist, and listen-sometimes alone, sometimes together.

With new work by Changjin Ha, Jorn Prenger, Carlotta van Schwartzenberg, Tanishq Bhat, Alex Blair and Gintarė Valionytė.

Programme
Ha – Purple Shoes
Changjin Ha, violin
Prenger – Op een vreemde manier
Jorn Prenger, 3 electric guitars and 2 harps
Van Schwartzenberg – A String of Fraction
Carlotta van Schwartzenberg, saxophone, horn and bassoon
Bhat – For the Ugliest Angel
Tanishq Bhat, flute
Blair – Magnificat
Alex Blair, choir
Valionytė – Bodily functions and malfunctions
Gintarė Valionytė, mixed instrumentation 

Voices, voices and more voices – interwoven with the sounds of other instruments. This evening features new compositions created through close collaboration between composers and singers.

With new work by Tiago Geerlings, Clara Montolio Cañete, Ivo Gonçalves Valença Pinto, Tigran Gabilov, Alex Blair, Karolis Dabulskis and Nora de Gier.

Singers: Beatriz Afonso Mendes, Inês Carramão, Kai Sven Detering, Roos van Herrewegen, Despina Kelesidou, Marco Pedreira Marques Ferreira, Carlos Pimentel Ribeiro De Figueiredo, Taymour Sirry, Katrine Sjoboden

Coaches: Aart Strootman and Noa Frenkel

This concert shifts the focus and places sound under a magnifying glass. Soloists, ensembles and electronics explore how sound changes through looping, amplification and distortion. Unexpected sound sources also find their place within the whole. how sound changes through looping, amplification, and distortion. Electronic augmentation is treated as a means of amplifying performers, extending instruments, revealing hidden details, and opening new ways of listening.

With new work by Nahia Vicente Elordi, Lingyuan Yang, Jim van der Steege, Ilija Maršićević and Virag Anna Virág.

Programme
Vicente Elordi – Loops
Nahia Vicente Elordi, bike(s)
Yang – LIMIA
Lingyuan Yang, double bass, drum set and electronics
Van der Steege – Contralude No. 2
Jim van der Steege, solo instrument and electronics
Maršićević – Doux
Ilija Maršićević, tape loop, 2 electric guitars, bass guitar and organ
Virág – Onderzoek
Virag Anna Virág, voice, piano, saxophone and drums

Who Are You? explores the inner self of the maker. Which part of yourself do you want to highlight, or leave in the shadows? Do you want to reveal a new aspect of yourself, or reinforce an existing image? Who Are You? is an invitation to young composers to present themselves to the public.

Within a four-month trajectory, Kluster5 worked with a small group of composers on developing new pieces. At the core of these works lies the question: Who Are You? Through exercises and coaching sessions, this question was explored. The answers found a place in different shapes and forms: in music, text and objects. Tonight you will not only listen to new music, you will also get to know three composers.

With new work by Tobias Alvarez Di Desidero, Gintarė Valionytė, Arefeh Hekmatpanah and Changjin Ha.

Kaleidoscope invites you into a world of echoes and subtle distortions. Works are all built from single instruments grouped together, multiplying and refracting the sound. Time is stretched inward by a piano, harps and scordatura guitars explore the traditions of music. Even text is fractured and repeated, throughout the concert mimicry is transformation and sameness is plurality. Find yourself where small differences make entire worlds.

With new work by John Galik, Cory Latkovich, Gustav Spoormaker and Changjin Ha.

Programme
Galik – What Time is This?
John Galik, piano
Latkovich – titel tob e announced
Cory Latkovich, harp quartet
Spoormaker – 16 Readings of the Same Text
Gustav Spoormaker, scordatura-guitar quartet
Ha – Sandfly on a Sleepy Wooden Doll
Changjin Ha, saxophone quintet

Each year, composition students of the Royal Conservatoire collaborate with art students of the Royal Academy of Art The Hague to present distinctive cross-disciplinary works. Together they explore the boundaries between music, sound, image and technology.

Expect a compelling mix of disciplines, with makers performing on new instruments they have built themselves in the workshops of the Royal Academy of Art, using metal, textile, wood, ceramics and 3D printing technology. This collaboration adds a playful and tangible dimension to the Spring Festival, connecting sound and image to physical form.

Signal constellations focus on the electroacoustic, streams of sounds that intersect and interfere. Analog modular synthesis, digital processes, and live performers collide into oneconstellation. From the KHZ Kollektiv’s shared music making, to intimate MIDI controllers, and the hybrid sound of sax and electronics, there are many unique ways of tracing sound. This concert takes you to a shared space and an evolving landscape.

Programme
KHZ Kollektiv – 30’ performance featuring works by students
Raubyte – s n s
Ieva Raubyte, 2 MIDI controllers and tape
Speda – with-in/with-out
Nicholas Speda, saxophone and electronics

With Invisible, composition teacher Jan van de Putte writes a new work for Ensemble Royaal of the Royal Conservatoire The Hague. This premiere is presented alongside four new compositions in various instrumentations by Composition students.

The collaboration with the Ensemble Academy creates an intensive exchange between makers and performers. An evening of premieres in which new work takes centre stage, and young composers share the stage with experienced musicians.

With new work by Thijmen Krijgsman, John Galik, Tanishq Bhat, Karolis Dabulskis and Jan van de Putte.