WorldPride at The Royal Concertgebouw: Pride Ball, WorldPride Choir Festival, Prom Night and Queer Composers
Black Pride Ball, Queer Voices Unite, Queer Prom Night and more
The Concertgebouw presents five WorldPride concerts featuring music, stories and performance from the LGBTIQ+ community. For the WorldPride Choir Festival, The Concertgebouw welcomes choirs from across the world, including from Los Angeles, London and Taipei. For the first time in the history of the Main Hall, a unique catwalk setting takes shape. Amsterdam Sinfonietta, under the direction of Candida Thompson, performs together with the international ballroom scene, with Zelda (Dapaah) Fitzerald taking on the role of MC. In the Recital Hall, both Harriet Krijgh and Freddie Ballentine invite audiences into special queer programmes. Closing the series is Queer Prom Night: an eclectic queer programme curated and hosted by Vera Siemons and Annefleur Schipper, known from the Lesbische Liga. Tickets for the concerts are available via The Concertgebouw's website.
Opus 1 Ball with Amsterdam Sinfonietta – Friday 7 August Black Pride Ball, For All Queens! and Amsterdam Sinfonietta bring about a spectacular encounter between classical music and ballroom culture. For the first time in the history of the Main Hall, a unique catwalk setting takes shape, in which Amsterdam Sinfonietta, under the direction of Candida Thompson, performs together with the international ballroom scene, with Zelda (Dapaah) Fitzerald taking on the role of MC. Ballwalkers take to the catwalk and compete for honours in categories such as Fem Queen Realness and Runway. All of this accompanied by the finest music from every genre: from Mahler to Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive.
Queer Voices Unite: WorldPride Choir Festival – Monday 3 August Eight queer choirs from the Netherlands and abroad fill the hall with song during this festival: Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles, London Gay Men's Chorus, Amsterdam Gay Men's Chorus, Manoeuvre Gay Men's Chorus Amsterdam, Galakoor Queer Klassiek from Amsterdam, Sing Out Brussels!, G-Major Chorus Taiwan and DynamiQ Voices Utrecht. Audiences are free to come and go as they please, letting themselves be carried along through different styles and traditions. The festival is hosted by Carolien Borgers and Jeangu Macrooy.
Queer Prom Night with Vera Siemons & Annefleur Schipper – Wednesday 5 August Vera Siemons and Annefleur Schipper (Lesbische Liga) host a grand musical celebration at The Concertgebouw: Queer Prom Night. The classic graduation ball, with live music, stories and other performances. A musical pride party: inclusive, proud and full of queer joy.
Our People: A Celebration of Black and Queer Voices – Saturday 1 August Tenor Freddie Ballentine and pianist Kunal Lahiry take audiences on a musical journey through identity, loss and pride. Together with ballroom dancers, they connect classical music with contemporary works and songs by artists including Nina Simone. Music by Schubert and Rachmaninoff is heard alongside contemporary works and songs from, among others, The AIDS Quilt Songbook and Backlash Blues.
Harriet Krijgh & Friends: a rainbow of Romantic music – Tuesday 28 July Cellist Harriet Krijgh, together with musical friends, reveals what connects composers such as Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns and Bernstein. By drawing attention to the often hidden queer history behind their music, these works are seen in a new light.
View the full WorldPride programme at The Concertgebouw at concertgebouw.nl/pride
The concerts are part of the VriendenLoterij Summer Concerts. VriendenLoterij participants receive a 50% discount, as they help make The Concertgebouw's summer programming possible.