News
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A Month in Kharkiv: an Interview with Christian van der Kooy
On Thursday 30 October 2025 at 7:30 p.m., the series Unbroken: Voices from Ukraine will open in the Paleiskerk in The Hague with Lux Aeterna Revoice by the Ukrainian vocal ensemble Alter Ratio. The twelve singers will make their Dutch debut with Lux Aeterna Revoice. György Ligeti’s iconic Lux Aeterna – known from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey – will be performed alongside four brand-new works. The ensemble pays tribute to Ukrainian artists who died during the war. An impressive and innovative programme: each composer interweaves the singers’ voices with an electronic soundscape in their own unique way…
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Classical NOW! steps in as co-organiser Concert for Peace at Concertgebouw
Classical NOW! was co-organiser of the Concert for Peace, which took place at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw on 6 March. The concert raised over 100,000 euros for Giro 555’s Ukraine relief fund. The peace concert was an intiative of pianist Anna Fedorova, percussionist Konstantyn Napolov - both from Ukraine - and Russian cellist Maya Fridman. The musicians live in the Netherlands and wanted a concert to speak out against the violence of war and for peace…
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Classical NOW! presents Percussion Marathon in sold-out opening concert
On Friday 2 July, we opened our series of concerts and mini-festivals with Maxim Shalygin’s Percussion Marathon. No fewer than 114 percussion instruments were set up in The Hague’s Paleiskerk: from a Senegalese xylophone to Thai gongs and Caribbean steel drums. Marathon initiator Konstantyn Napolov and his fellow percussionists from the Shapeshift Ensemble played five percussion pieces by Hague-Ukrainian composer Maxim Shalygin. For the solo part in the violin concerto, Daniel Rowland came to The Hague. A spectacular opening with the world premiere of the solo piece Octopus. The Paleiskerk was sold out twice. Joep Stapel of the NRC stopped by and interviewed Shalygin, Napolov and the artistic coordinator of Classical NOW!…
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Coming soon
We are working hard on our upcoming programme, which, like last year’s edition, consists of several mini-festivals. We highlight four themes. In Around Maxim Shalygin we present solo pieces, songs and chamber music by this high-profile composer from The Hague/Ukraine. A film portrait about him will premiere. The Ukrainian pianist Antonii Barishevskyi plays a central role: he is our artist in residence this season…
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Music For Change
The Music for Change programme to be performed during The People United of Classical NOW festival was conceived by pianist Hanna Shybayeva (Belarus), cellist Maya Fridman (Russia) and percussionist Konstantyn Napolov (Ukraine). The three musicians have been living and working in the Netherlands for a long time, but still feel a strong connection to their home countries, where life is being turned upside down…
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NPO Radio 4 presents two concerts from our festival Around Messiaen
NPO Radio 4 broadcast two concerts from our festival Around Messiaen on its Avondconcert programme. In the Paleiskerk, the microphones were set up for Alfonso Gómez. The Spanish pianist came from Freiburg to play Messiaen’s Vingt regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus. His lucid vision of this monumental cycle and his colourful, deeply focused playing made a big impression: it took several minutes for the applause to break out after the final notes. You can hear it in the live recording. The Fazioli piano, which we rent for our concerts, shines in this recording…
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Interview met Tobias Borsboom over Godowsky
“Het pianistische universum van Godowsky heeft op mij een verslavend effect …”…
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Interview met Liza Ferschtman over Bach
“When I perform Bach’s Chaconne, I feel as if I have been given a rare glimpse over the edge.”…
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