Chopin on Curaçao - a journey to the sources of Antillean music

Writer Jan Brokken and the ensemble Konjunto Antyano in a programme on two centuries of Antillean music. Dutch spoken.

20060123220713

Information

Date and time Friday 20 January 2006 22:01 tot 22:55 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - kleine zaal

In 1993 writer Jan Brokken settled on Curaçao. He rented a house which had a piano and he spent his first night playing some of Chopin's mazurka's. The following morning he was embraced by his neighbour who exclaimed "I heared you play the piano last night and you were playing our music." That was the beginning of a fascination that led Brokken from Curaçao to Aruba, Cuba, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Trinidad, where he found the same musical patterns everywhere. He collected and took with him a wealth of stories and anecdotes from unique musicians . In Waarom elf Antillianen knielden voor het hart van Chopin (Why eleven Antilleans kneeled before the heart of Chopin), Jan Brokken's latest book, he illuminates one and a half century of Caribbean music. 'In the Caribbean music', he writes, 'I found what I was looking for in my travel stories: that is how different cultures merge into one another.' Using this music as a guideline Jan Brokken offers an unique insight into Antillean history, its way of life and the mentality. This evening you can listen to the story of Jan Brokken and to the music of the Konjunto Antyano quartet, directed by Randal Corsen. Dutch spoken.

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Jan Brokken

(Leyden, 1949) is one of the most prominent figures in Dutch literary non-fiction. He has also gained international recognition with works such as Baltische zielen (Baltic Souls) en De rechtvaardigen (The Righteous). His writings have been translated into 23 languages, among which English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Chinese and Russian. His two most recent books are set in former Dutch East Indies, where both of his parents lived and were held captive in Japanese internment camps during the war: De tuinen van Buitenzorg (The Gardens of Buitenzorg, 2021) and De Kampschilders (The Camp Painters, 2022). In September 2023, Brokken was honored with the Golden Quill Award for his entire body of work. Brokken studied journalism in Utrecht and political science in Bordeaux. After a career in journalism (including roles at Trouw and HP/De Tijd), Brokken decided to dedicate himself fully to his writing in 1986. His debut, the adapted novel De provincie (The province, 1984), had already been published by that time. He has since produced over thirty-five titles - a mix of fiction and non-fiction - in which he unveils the histories of countries he has visited, from Africa and the Caribbean to Indonesia.
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Randal Corsen en Konjunto Antiyano

Randal Corsen (1972, Curaçao), pianist, composer and arranger, is known for his combination of jazz and Antillian and Latin-American classical music. He studied piano in the conservatory of Tilburg in the Netherlands. For his cd 'Evolushon' he received the Edison Jazz Award 2004. Currently he is allied to the conservatories of Tilburg and Amsterdam. With Konjunto Antiyano, a traditional Antillean quartet, he made a repertoire that travels between Chopin, Antillean classical music and Antillean folklore. The quartet also plays classical compositions by the great great grandfather of Randal Corsen, the poet and componist Joseph Sickman Corsen. The author of 'Atardi', the first and the most well known poem in Papiamento literature. With Eric Calmes on double bass, Ulrich de Jesus on kwarta and guitar and Eric Brigitha percussion.
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