In 2020, Oranjewoud Festival introduced the Oranjewoud Label: a collection of distinctive artistic projects for which the festival acts as commissioner or otherwise plays a key role, and which subsequently continue to develop and be presented beyond the festival itself. Since then, the festival has become closely associated with several high-profile initiatives, including the composers’ project Toonzetters, for which it received the Nieuw Geneco Fair Practice Award 2022.
Site-specific music
Oranjewoud Festival has been positioning itself since 2014 through (the development of) site-specific music, aiming to play a leading role in this field. Site-specific music is closely connected to a particular place. The composition, concept, and/or performance are specially designed for the unique characteristics of that location. The place thus becomes an essential part of the musical work.
ATLAS ORCHESTRA
In 2025, after years of preparation, the Holland Festival, NTR ZaterdagMatinee and Oranjewoud Festival in collaboration with the Atlas Ensemble presented the Atlas Orchestra. Forty musicians from diverse cultures came together to create a previously unheard sound world. The audience was enthralled by this unique concert.
Residencies
The Atlas Project consisted of three consecutive residencies in 2023, 2024 and 2025, each accompanied by a new composition commission. At its core lies the question of what happens to musical texture, interaction, and ensemble playing when working with distinct groups of instruments. While the resulting Atlas Orchestra may resemble a Western symphony orchestra in scale and scope, it is fundamentally different in nature. The project is concerned not only with the synthesis of sounds, but also with the integration of diverse musical traditions and performance practices—bringing with it a unique set of artistic, logistical, and communicative challenges.
TOONZETTERS
What do today’s twenty-something composers sound like? Toonzetters is a kaleidoscopic concert featuring the work of twenty young Dutch composers. A wide range of styles and musical personalities unfolds in rapid succession, from neo-romantic percussion pieces and piano sound sculptures to jazz-infused electronics. Over the course of an hour, a vivid portrait of contemporary music emerges, performed by four outstanding musicians and accompanied by hypnotic film imagery by Bowie Verschuuren and dramaturgical guidance from Jos van Kan. In 2023, an album of the project was released by 7 Mountain Records.
Toonzetters is an initiative by composer Primo Ish-Hurwitz, produced by Oranjewoud Festival in collaboration with Stichting Pelgrimsjaren, November Music, and Festival Dag in de Branding.
With this project, Oranjewoud Festival received the Nieuw Geneco Fair Practice Award 2022, recognizing its commitment to supporting emerging composers and fostering sustainable, equitable artistic practice.
THE CALL OF THE SEMANTRON
A site-specific work commissioned by Oranjewoud Festival from Greek composer Aspasia Nasopoulou, conceived for the Grand Canal south of Museum Belvédère. The piece centers on the semantron, a percussion instrument consisting of wooden panels struck by Greek Orthodox priests in a manner comparable to the ringing of church bells within the Christian tradition. The remaining ensemble comprises a saxophone quartet and percussion, creating a unique dialogue between ancient ritual sound and contemporary musical expression.
ALL EYES ARE ON YOU
Commissioned by the festival, Mayke Nas created in 2022 a work that is both an installation and a composition: a flowerbed-like structure consisting of 27 loudspeakers mounted on rotating stems. The project was inspired by Nas’s fascination with the world of insects and her concern about declining biodiversity. Yet the work is far more than an environmental manifesto. Its distinctive character, wit, and sense of playfulness elevate it beyond activism alone. The result is an engaging audiovisual experience in which the small speakers appear to dance, taking on an almost human presence as they move and interact through sound.
SANCTUARY OF SOUND
Commissioned by Oranjewoud Festival, composer Miranda Driessen is creating a 72-hour site-specific work for eight aeolian harps installed in a meadow. Over the course of three full days and nights, the harps will be retuned more than fifty times, continuously reshaping the sonic landscape. Activated by the wind, the installation unfolds as a piece of music in slow motion, inviting reflection on the sky above, the open grassland below, and the distant horizon that surrounds it. The work offers a contemplative experience in which natural forces become co-composers, blurring the boundaries between music, landscape, and the passage of time.
DE FOLLY
In 2022, Oranjewoud Festival commissioned visual artists Paul and Menno de Nooijer and guitarist Izhar Elias to create Folly Ball as part of the festival’s Night of the Park programme. This pilot project laid the foundation for the full-scale production De Folly, an interdisciplinary performance exploring the concept of “truth.” The work premiered at Oranjewoud Festival in 2023, bringing together music, visual art, theatre, and film in the distinctive and imaginative style for which the De Nooijers are known.
Eerdere projecten
Concerto in Technicolor (2022)
Jazzvioolconcert geschreven door componist/pianist Thomas Beijer voor Julia Philippens in opdracht van Oranjewoud Festival en het Noord Nederlands Orkest. De première vond plaats op 4 juni 2022 in Oranjewoud door het NNO onder leiding van Clark Rundell.
De Salon (2021)
Naar een concept van violist Rosanne Philippens. Inmiddels is het format zelfstandig doorontwikkeld en maakt het deel uit van de vaste programmering van Oranjewoud Festival en SPOT Groningen / De Oosterpoort.
La Voix Humaine FaceTime (2018)
Coproductie van Oranjewoud Festival en LEKS naar de klassieker van schrijver Jean Cocteau en componist Francis Poulenc, uitgevoerd door mezzosopraan Ekaterina Levental, pianist Yoram Ish-Hurwitz en regisseur Chris Koolmees van LEKS .
Tinteltijd (2018)
Jeugdvoorstelling van schrijver/performer Joke van Leeuwen, uitgevoerd door haarzelf, violist Noa Wildschut en accordeonduo TOEAC.