Winternachten Concert - In the Dream House

Winternachten Festival, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and Amare present: In the Dream House

The summer edition of Winternachten Festival concluded in high style in the concert hall of Amare with "In the Dream House." Writers, poets and artists brought their dream house to life in word, imagery and music. It was a program full of bright, warm and dark desires; of ancestors and wise women; of loss and pleasure. You were enchanted by hip-hop icon Sef, Winti priestess Marian Markelo, writers Raoul de Jong and Sanneke van Hassel, singer-songwriter Shishani, spoken-word artist Benzokarim, poet Iman Mersal, and singer Sterre Konijn. Drummers from the Royal Conservatory: guided by Pepe Garcia set the rhythm, and our dream hostess, theatre producer and stand-up philosopher Laura van Dolron ensured that you feel at home right away.

Bring along your home to our dream house
To properly shelter all these dreams, we asked the public as well as artists to share their idea of "home." You brought something with you that feels "like home" or with which you'd brighten your home: a plant, teacup, dishrag or mood lamp... We loved to hear the story behind your dream-house artifact! You could write to us ahead of time or tell us upon arrival; Sanneke van Hassel and Anouk Driessen recorded it and gave it a good spot in the room. In this way we created a living archive of our dream houses together, inspired by the novel In the Dream House by the U.S. writer Carmen Maria Machado. Also, you didn't go home empty-handed, because afterwards you took home someone else's object and story.

Dutch spoken.

Information

Date and time Sunday 19 June 2022 from 16:00 to 17:15 hrs
Location Amare
Price Toprang 35,-
1st rang 29,-
2nd rang 25,-
3rd rang 22,-
youth (26 and younger) 10,-

Line-up

Raoul de Jong

(Rotterdam, 1984) writes novels, literary nonfiction and essays in a.o. news media Vrij Nederland, Het Parool and NRC Handelsblad. For his novel Stinknegers (2006), in which the main character travels solo through West Africa, he received the Dick Scherpenzeel Prize. He also published, among others, Het leven is verschrikkulluk (2005), It's Amaaazing (2006), Miracoloso (2008), De grootsheid van het al (2013) and Dagboek van een puber (2018). In Jaguarman; Mijn vader, zijn vader en andere Surinaamse helden (2020). a mix of fiction, nonfiction and travelogue, he speaks to archaeologists, dance teachers and winti priests in Suriname, and gets to know Surinamese writers, thinkers and resistance heroes such as Anton de Kom, Papa Koenders and Bram Behr. He received the Anna Blaman Prize in 2022 for his entire oeuvre. His Boekenweekessay Boto Banja of het geheime genootschap der dansende schrijvers (Boto Banja, or: the secret society of the dancing writers) was published in 2023.
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Iman Mersal

(Egypt, 1966) studied at Mansura University and was co-founder and editor of the feminist magazine Bint al-Ard (Daughter of the Earth). She is one of Arab world's most acclaimed contemporary writers and a professor of Arabian literature in Canada. These Are Not Oranges, My Love (2008), is a selection of her English-language poems; her poetry has also been translated into other languages. In How to Mend: On motherhood and its ghosts (2016) she tells a new story of motherhood, switching between diary fragments, readings and photos in order to question old and new conceptions of motherhood and the unconditional love, guilt, personal goals and traditional expectations that come with it. These stories show that we are greater than our individual experiences, sorrows, worries and fears, and that they are hardly unique. She published Home, New Arabic Poems in 2020.
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Laura van Dolron

(Netherlands, 1976) expresses her idealistic self as a writer, theatre producer, director, performer and "action writer." She created her own theatrical category: stand-up philosophy. She doesn't make theatre about a better world, but makes a better world within the theatre. Van Dolron writes almost all of her own plays, and the scripts of Liefhebben (Loving) and WIJ (WE) have been published in book form. She often performs alone on stage, and sometimes with other actors. She also directs theatre performances. Since 2015 Van Dolron has performed as an "action writer," as well. At various gatherings, from theatre festivals to police workshops, she reflects live on what she observes and, with an outsider's gaze, sums up the event in clever and funny language.
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Sanneke van Hassel

(Netherlands, 1971) wrote six collections of short stories, inluding 2019's Nederzettingen (Settlements), as well as the novels Nest (2010) and Stille grond (Silent Ground, 2017). She won the 2008 BNG New Literature Prize for her early work and the 2013 Anna Blaman Prize for her oevre. Van Hassel also writes non-fiction and is a strong promotor of the short story genre; together with Annelies Verbeke she compiled the short-story anthology Naar de stad (Toward the City, 2012). Both her novels and short stories describe people struggling to get a grip on their lives. Van Hassel studied drama and cultural history, was a dramaturge with theatre company ’t Barre Land from 1996-2006, and is a member of the writers' collective Fixdit, which aims to raise awareness of gender inequality in literature and expand the literary canon with work by important female authors.

Go to website Sanneke van Hassel
Instagram: @sannekevanhassel
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Benzokarim

(1996) is a poet and performer. In 2022, he won the El Hizjra literature prize for poetry and published his debut collection El Ghorba. In it, he talks to his father, mourns his mother and writes poetry about experiences that are recognisable to anyone with a migrant background. His second collection, Ons gaan allemaal (We're all going), has been awarded with the Jan Campert Prize 2025, yearly prize for poetry. As coach of Poetry Circle 070 and editor of Mensen Zeggen Dingen, he is working hard to pave the way for a new generation of world improvers. Benzokarim is Rotterdam's City Poet in 2025 and 2026.

Bekijk de website van Benzokarim
Instagram: @benzokarim_
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Shishani

(Namibia, 1988) is a singer-songwriter loved for her smooth and powerful voice. Her roots are Namibian and Belgian, but she grew up mainly in the Netherlands. Her work brings these worlds together. Her music is comforting and has a strong thread of social consciousness running through it. She founded the all-female band Miss Catharsis in 2019. Her anthropology (BA) and musicology (MA) studies focused on contemporary urban Namibian music.
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Marian Markelo

was born in Suriname (Moengo). She is Okomfo, alias Winti priestess Nana Efua. She performs the libation on 1 July at the yearly commemoration ceremony for the abolition of slavery in Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean held in Amsterdam's Oosterpark. She is the founder of NIRASE, the Dutch Winti institute for the rehabilitation and profile-raising of Winti. She is also a director of various African-Surinamese organizations, sich as NINSEE. As an expert in historical, spiritual and social African-Surinamese heritage, she works together with various art and cultural institutions and organizes heritage trips to West Africa, South America and the Caribbean.
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Sterre Konijn

(1987) has built up a diverse concert and musical-theatre practice through her love of music, language and theatre. She studied Italian and classical singing, earned a Master in Musical Theatre, and learned all the possibilities for voice in her studies at Denmark's Complete Vocal Institute. She sings everything from French chanson to Bulgarian folk music, jazz and classical avant-garde; she composes; and she plays the violin, duduk and theremin. She has performed in various musical-theatre productions with companies such as Silbersee, Theater Sonnevanck, Ulrike Quade Company and Herman van Veen. She has performed at prominent Dutch venues as well as on a manure pile on the island of Terschelling and in the air above Florence. Konijn won the Concours de la Chanson Alliance Française and has appeared on Dutch radio and TV programs. In 2021 she released her debut CD een (one), a concept album about connection and loneliness, on the border between music and theatre.


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Sef

(aka Yousef Gnaoui) began his musical career in the group Flinke Namen (Big Names) and then successfully went solo. He had several hits and was nominated for an Edison and 3FM Award. Besides being a musician, Sef is active as an art director as well as a director, creating videos and artworks of his own and for fellow musicians, among other projects. In 2017 he started the podcast "Yous & Yay: New Emotions" with Pepijn Lanen for the Dutch broadcaster VPRO, which has since become one of the most most listened-to podcasts in the Benelux. In recent years Sef has become a highly valued and respected artist in the Dutch hip-hop scene and has secured a special place in it. In March 2020, he released his fourth pop album, El Salvador.


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Jose Pepe Garcia

is a versatile percussionist/performer based in the Netherlands, with a great interest in classical percussion, non-western hand drumming and composition. He is a current member of the New European Ensemble and Slagwerk Den Haag (Percussion The Hague). Currently, he is on the faculty of The Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. His students Miguel Varela, Joao Borralho, Te Ping, Gonzalo Martins, Porter Ellerman, Joao Brito, Joan Piles, Dimitris Pliatsikas, Ricardo Mendes and Diogo Marques take part in Winternachten Concert - In the Dreamhouse. Pepe Garcia and Enric Monfort direct them.
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Xavi Torres

Spanish pianist virtuoso Xavi Torres is one of the most outstanding young musicians from the European scene. He is currently living in Amsterdam, after having studied Classical and Jazz at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (with David Kuyken, Harmen Fraanje, Yaniv Nachum...). He has won several prizes, including the Dutch Jazz Competition and the Keep an Eye International Award with his trio, Enderrock 2020 Best Album Prize and Catalan Best Jazz Band, among others. He became the second Spanish to ever be in the semifinals of the Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition in December 2018, after Jorge Rossy in 1992 (the most important jazz competition in the world). After his acclaimed work with the Xavi Torres Trio, his last solo piano album “Curiosity” has been released by dutch label Just Listen (attached to the world renowned classical label Channel Classics). His last project is “A Kind of Beethoven”, a commission from Barcelona's main Concert Hall to revisit Beethoven's Piano Sonatas.
He has recorded more than 25 albums with several bands and played with people like Dick Oatts, Terell Stafford, Nir Felder, Tineke Postma, Jorge Rossy and Ben van Gelder. He has written music for FUSE, Dudok String Quartet and the Intercontinental Ensemble.
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Merel Vercammen

Violinist Merel Vercammen received her first violin lessons when she was five years old and from the age of fifteen, she studied at the Utrecht Conservatory with Eeva Koskinen. She graduated with honors from the Royal College of Music in London. Merel has performed all over the world and played in concert halls such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the Wigmore Hall in London. As a soloist, Merel has performed in the violin concertos of Beethoven, Brahms and Otto Kettin. She also developed an interactive performance about music and the brain (The New Mozart Effect) and is involved in improvisation. Her albums The Zoo (2019) and The Boulanger Legacy (2021) were highly acclaimed.

Merel has won the London Grand Prize Virtuoso Competition, the National Competition of the Netherlands Young Music Talent Foundation and the Princess Christina Competition. In addition to her activities as a violinist, Merel also obtained a Master of Science in Music, Mind & Brain at Goldsmiths, University of London and a Master in Cultural Economics & Entrepreneurship at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her interests in music and science come together in her new festival SNAAR in TivoliVredenburg.
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