The limits of chaos

On rules and chaos in art and the assumed freedom during improvisations. With cellist Ernst Reijseger and poet laureate Ramsey Nasr. NL

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Information

Date and time Saturday 16 January 2010 22:05 tot 23:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - grote zaal

Sometimes it seems that art comes into being primarily where order has been removed. But maybe even the most disorganising artist needs footing. With his music cellist Ernst Reijsiger skims along the limits of what his instrument has to offer in terms of possibilities. Ramsey Nasr, poet laureate, in poems like Mi Have een Droom (Me Have a Dream) explores the limits of Dutch as a language, and being an actor and a director he often finds himself in the grey area of text and improvisation.
With Jan Donker as host, these two artists talk about rules and chaos and the assumed freedom during improvisation. How chaotic can and must one be. Which rule will they never break? A programme full of recitation and unsettling music. In Dutch

Ramsey Nasr

(The Netherlands, 1974) is a poet, writer, actor and director. He made his poetry debut in 2000 with 27 gedichten & Geen lied (27 Poems & No Song). Nasr acts in films and TV series and is a member of the International Theatre Amsterdam ensemble. His stage and screen roles have been awarded multiple times. He also writes theatre pieces, columns, essays and opinon pieces. From 2009 to 2013 he was the Dutch Poet Laureate. In his essay collection De fundamenten (The Fundamentals, 2021), he assesses a corona pandemic-struck nation; Nasr compacter (2021) gathers the best of his poems from a two-decade career. In 2023 he created a series for Dutch TV about objects from his own collections, Dr Nasrs Wunderkammer (Dr. Nasr's Chamber of Wonders).
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Ernst Reijseger

(Bussum, NL, 1954) was taught to play cello as of age eight by Anner Bijlsma, then the first cellist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. At the end of the 1960s he began improvising and developed his own playing style. From this time onward he performed throughout Europe with various ensembles, playing modern classical music as well as jazz improv. In the late 1980s he founded the Clusone Trio, which made five albums in ten years and gave concerts around the world. Currently Reijseger performs mostly with pianist Harmen Fraanje and the Senegalese vocalist Molla Sylla. He also composes scores for films and documentaries, including for director Werner Herzog. He teaches children and adults worldwide and has accompanied the likes of poets Ramsey Nasr and Ester Naomi Perquin, writer/poet Joke van Leeuwen, and artist Gerti Bierenbroodspot. The cellist has made more than 150 CDs and won the Boy Edgar Prize and an Edison, among others. In 2010 he won a Golden Calf (the Dutch Oscar) for best film score.
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Jan Donkers

(Amsterdam, 1943) his career as a writer and journalist is determined by two big passions: pop music and America. In the late 1960s Donkers belonged to the top of Dutch pop journalism. He was a critic for the Volkskrant and worked for Hitweek. In those days he started making programmes for VPRO radio. First mainly pop programmes but later he worked on the foreign desk as well. He left for America early 1970s to report the elections for VPRO and various magazines and newspapers. Those stories were later collected in Amerika, Amerika. In 1974 he and others formed the first editorial staff of the literary magazine Revisor. The next decade he wrote first and foremost travelogues from Africa, Asia and Latin America. In 2006 Mijn muziek (My music) appeared, an overview of his work as a pop journalist including a cd with recordings of his own.
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