On Monday the 17th of January Amare opened her doors to the students, teachers and staff of the Royal Conservatoire. What do they think of their new building? We met them in the walkways, and spoke to them about their first impressions.

Jorn, Bachelor 3 piano
‘Do you happen to know where room 5.77 is?
My first impression: Amare is big. It is quite impressive. I find it absurdist that you have to take an escalator to get upstairs. I do believe that there are fewer rooms. I am wondering whether it will be alright with studying enough as a pianist. I am worrying a bit about that, but the building is just f*^#ing beautiful.
Hey, we are walking in circles, we were just walking here.’

Marlon, Head of the Classical Music Department
‘It is fun to see how everybody is walking around amazed. When does it happen that an entire organization moves at the same time and has to explore and experience everything all over again. This feeling of weightlessness, we are at a point where everything is possible. That is great.’

Caterina, Coordinator Ensemble Academy Master Specialisation
‘The study rooms are much better than those in the old building, the acoustics are better, but also the light. That is really important.’

Daniele, Producer Classical Music and Chamber Music
‘It is a really beautiful and new building, with lots of new technology. The future will be something completely different from what we are used to in the old building. It is a place where you can really meet musicians, in the middle of the city centre. I do have to get used to routes. I cannot find all of the rooms yet. Over here, you walk a lot more than in the old building, so you have to adjust the timings in between appointments a bit. Instead of a distance of 2 doors, there is a distance of two floors.’

Pedro, Master 2, Music Education
‘It looks really amazing. The coffee is good in the canteen.
It is nice that there are a lot of different people that we don’t know. We don’t know where they are from or what they are doing. They could be from the orchestra or from the dance department. It is a really nice combination of different disciplines in the same building with shared spaces.’

Liselotte, Teacher Economics and Maths, School for Young Talent
‘It is a fantastic building.
The classrooms are much more beautiful than the old ones. We got new furniture, and the rooms are bright and pleasant.
The children are still looking for their own place to sit. In the old building everybody knew each other, but here are a lot of other people as well, on the ground floor even people from outside can walk in, so we have to get used to that. It is also good for my pedometer because I have to walk quite some stairs every day.
There is a good coffee machine and a nice teacher room, so I am content.’