Tragicomic Music theatre about the question how to stand your ground in an increasingly complex world
While the Nazis are sharpening their knives in the background, Charlotte Salomon's life begins to shake to its foundations for a completely different reason, when her grandfather reveals that she has been lied to by her family all these years. Her mother does not appear to have died of the flu, but committed suicide, as did a whole series of other family members. Overwhelmed by this news, 22-year-old Charlotte begins a quest. With the help of her mentor Amadeus Daberlohn, she tries to fathom what is true and what is not.
She begins to paint feverishly to create order in the chaos in her head and to reshape her life. But is that possible? Or is Charlotte's fate already sealed? She creates more than 700 gouaches (watercolour paintings) with images, texts and fragments of music. She calls the work Leben? Oder Theater? - Ein Singespiel [Life? or Theatre].
Vocal quintet Wishful Singing and the young energetic ensemble But What About present a tragicomic music theatre performance based on the true story of Charlotte Salomon. Her colourful visual history of more than 700 paintings and texts comes to life theatrically thanks to Steven Kamperman's multicoloured composition that conjures up both Charlotte's moving cries from the heart and the lively Berlin of the thirties, and the equally dynamic and humorous staging by Annechien Koerselman in which Charlotte leaves no stone unturned to get to the bottom of things. All this against the threatening sounds of a rapidly changing society.
The powerful performance Charlotte Salomon celebrates the life and work of Charlotte Salomon and tells the moving story of a young woman who manages to stand her ground despite challenging circumstances in an increasingly complex world. It is also a tribute to her work, which is still of great significance.
“ I have a task, and no power on earth can stop me from accomplishing it.” - Charlotte Salomon
Photo © Juri Hiensch
Credits Cast & Crew
Reviews
De Volkskrant, Maartje Stokkers, September 28, 2025
The September Me Festival has a wonderful premiere with the opera about the life of Charlotte Salomon!
A clever move by librettist and director Annechien Koerselman is the setting of a family constellation.
And that last part is what gives the performance its air. The musicians all navigate the narrow space between laughter and tears with virtuosity.
Charlotte Salomon – Life? or Theatre? is highly recommended.
Nederlands Dagblad, Margaretha Coornstra, October 03, 2025
Trailer © Bowie Verschuuren i.c.w. Stella Brüggen / Music © Steven Kamperman
imaginative musical theater about feelings of homesickness and making weatherproof plans for the future (6+)
The water is rising and fast as well. Janna and her parents have to leave their country. Packed and ready, they step into the boat that will take them to the other side, to a new life. But to her horror, Janna discovers that her rabbit Marietje is not on board. Without even thinking, she jumps back onto land. And so begins a musical search across her native land for her beloved bunny. Across places from the past, via miraculous encounters with a woodworm, a herring king and a lighthouse keeper's cat, until after a dive she finally ends up with Marietje in the land of the future.
With a lot of humor and a touch of Alice in Wonderland, Ensemble Black Pencil, together with actress Yara Alink, brings the history of Schokland musically to life. Once an island in the Zuiderzee, now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Shockwave is an imaginative musical theater performance about what happens when the climate becomes so confused that you are forced to leave everything behind. About saying goodbye to the old and making weatherproof plans for the future. About the power of imagination and the magic of music, which can tame waves, raise landscapes to the sky, and package beautiful memories in such a way that you can never lose them.
Photo © Claudia Hansen
Credits Cast & Crew
Video © Kees Jongboom
Reviews
De Theaterkrant, Sander Janssens, February 24, 2025
With threatening sighing sounds and squeaking whistles, music collective Black Pencil immediately blows a storm over the stage. Beautifully dissonant sounds are pressed from an accordion, brushing wind carries away from the sound box of a violin.
The main strength of this small, three-quarters of an hour show is in the interaction between the clear, down-to-earth acting of Alink, and the five musicians on the stage. Her parents are sad-left alone on the boat – can be heard in the comfort of the violin playing and the deep, familiar sounds of the accordion. Janna's inner turmoil, sways in the nervous percussion.
Entire worlds [are] evoked: from a fish dance in a mysterious underwater world to the posh mayoral village of Middelbuurt, where stately organ-like sounds from the accordion evoke the expensive houses and large churches.
Hanna van der Woude, September 26, 2024
An ode to the childish imagination
The Lake Constance Philharmonic are facing a great adventure. They want to explore Lake Constance like true pioneers and thus reveal in their own musical way the wonder that this lake is after all. The musicians build a boat with which they can cut through the waves. But the water of Lake Constance cannot easily be over"sailed" and calls on the inventiveness and imagination of the philharmonic orchestra. However, these pioneers don't need to be told this twice, because when something makes their hearts beat faster... Eureka!
Drawing © Susanne Smajic
Credits Cast & Crew
Orchestra The Lake Constance Philharmonics
Idea, Concept, Script, Stage direction & Musical dramaturgy Annechien Koerselman
Set- & Costumedesign Eszter Haáz
Lightdesign Annechien Koerselman
Department Musiceducation Andrea Hoever
Organisation Bodenseephilharmonie Constance (DE)
CALENDAR
2025
Kreuzlingen (CH) Februay 09, 2025, 10:15 & 12:00 h
Constance (DE) Februay 10, 2025, 10:15 & 12:00 h
Constance (DE) Februay 11, 2025, 10:15
Constance (DE) October 12, 2025,10:15 & 12:00 h
will be further complemented
2024
Constance (DE) October 22, 2024
Kreuzlingen (CH) October 28, 2024, 9:30 & 11:00 h
Kreuzlingen (CH) 29 oktober 2024, 9:30 & 11:00 h
More information: Bodensee Philharmonie
Drawing © Alexander Jansson
fifteenth elephantastic children's concert
The elephant (Elefant) is celebrating his 50th birthday! Together with Anke, André, the rabbi (Hase)t, and the WDR Funkhausorchester, we'll be preparing his birthday party with you. Accompanied by lots of wonderful music, we'll search for the best party games, bake cakes, and decorate the stage: an interactive hands-on concert for little music fans!
Anke Engelke and André Gatzke have been discovering the world of music together with elephant and rabbit and the WDR Funkhausorchestra since 2011. Each year they focus on a different sound theme, such as the musical animal melodies in the concert Something animalistic (Tierisch was los), classic party hits in Birthdayparty (Geburtstagparty), songs around the universe in Space, oceansounds Under Water, the musical and acrobatic world in the circus. Last season we went into the Mountains. Dit seizoen vieren we dat Elefant 50 jaar bestaat. 50th Birthday is a theatrical concert for the little ones to marvel, listen and to participate.
Images © WDR / Composition © Annechien Koerselman
Credits Cast & Crew
Moderation Anke Engelke, André Gatzke
Orchestra WDR Funkhausorchester Köln
Conductor Enrico Delamboye
Text Anke Engelke & Leona Frommelt
Stage direction Annechien Koerselman
Animations Hardy Hoffmann
Setdesign Svea Blichenberg - Hansen (Basic Set: Anja Dublanka)
Props Barbara Cibis
Costumes Antonia Möltgen
Lightdesign Annechien Koerselman
WDR Musiceduction Department Mirjam von Jarzebowski
Organisation West Deutscher Rundfunk Cologne (DE)
CALENDAR
Cologne (DE) WDR Rundfunkhaus November 20, 2025, 9:00 & 11:30h
Cologne (DE) WDR Rundfunkhaus November 21, 2025, 9:00 & 11:30h
Cologne (DE) WDR Rundfunkhaus November 22, 2025, 11:00 & 15:00h
More information: WDR
In Urban Mosaic by the Utrecht Jazz Archipel and vocalist Henk Kraaijeveld, jazz, poetry and visual arts come together, with the city as a source of inspiration in all its attractiveness and dark sides. The audience views the city through poems by a.o. Kader Abdolah and Mia You, illustrations by Mirjam Debets and resounding jazz compositions by the Utrecht Jazz Archipel. As a result one faces the night parties and heat stress, next to the unprecedented possibilities and cultural frictions that characterize the 21st century city in every way. Two poets will be present in each performance to perform their poetry live, together with the ensemble, and thus pay tribute to the city's diversity.
Photo © Manuel Quesada
Credits Cast & Crew
Visual © Mirjam Debets
Visual by Mirjam Debets belonging to the Jazz number The City Reflects (De Stad bezint) © Mees Siderius / Kader Abdolah (part of the show Urban Mosaïc by Utrecht Jazz Archipel)
musictheater for the young and old (6+)
Premiere May 29, 2010, Concertgebouw Amsterdam
The five men of Calefax are working in a pipe factory. Every day they do the same work and it seems just fine. The panic is huge when one day no more orders are coming in anymore. The men decide to experiment with the pipes and create the strangest instruments, which also happen to sound very nice! The orders are pouring in again and the Music Factory is a fact.
In 2012 The Musicfactory won the Junge Ohren Preis. Since then this performance in which music is the only spoken language spoken travels around the world. From China to South America. From North America to Europe.
Photo © Ronald Knapp
Credits Cast & Crew
Reviews
NRC Handelsblad, Jochem Valkenburg, December 28, 2010
Playing on PVC pipes as if they were little panflutes. "Hey, beautiful music!", shouts a girl in the hall when the five in overall dresses factoryworkers make a great discovery on stage. It turns out that they can play on the pvc pipes which they work with as panflutes, each one or two notes, but all combined a complete piece of music. It is one of the many enchanting moments in this merry music performance The Musicfactory by Calefax Reed Quintet. In the beginning diligently and in a tight rhythm the five built crazy tubeconstruction. Along the way they discover the music, at first while improvising on tools and materials, later on their real instruments.
The children's performance for children from six is perfectly drawn up. No word is spoken, but the five musicians turn out to be talented mimes, which in gesture and music can tell a humorous and touching story about social relationships. The saxophonist of the group plays a stubborn dandy, the rest try to tame by playing. Meanwhile, music from Bach to contemporary sounds, which is played equally sparkling as virtuoso. The end is a good example of cultural entrepreneurship: the musicians connect the instruments to a device out of which cd's unroll. For 10 euros each, they sell fast.
De Telegraaf, Frederike Berntsen, December 09, 2010
The prestigious German Junge Ohren Preis 2012 (JOP!) Best Practice – Concert for the best youth musical performances, was assigned to The Musicfactory, a coproduction of Oorkaan and Calefax Reed Quintet!
Jury report Junge Ohren Award, Hamburg, November 16, 2012
Best Practice, Concert: Winner is the Project „Musikfabrik“. (Original: De Muziekfabriek), a production by Oorkaan in cooperation with the Calefax Reed Quintet, Amsterdam
Der Preis für das überzeugendste Musikvermittlungsprojekt für junges Publikum im Bereich Konzert geht an das Projekt Die Musikfabrik des Produktionshauses Oorkaan. Musikfabrik gibt en passant einen faszinierenden und spritzig präsentierten Blick in die Geschichte, Bauweise und Spieltechnik der Holzblasinstrumente und in musikalische Kommunikationsformen. Die Strukturen der eingebundenen Kompositionen und Musikstile werden nonverbal in einer spannenden Bühnenhandlung für Kinder erfahrbar gemacht. Das Projekt regt zum Staunen und Experimentieren an und ist darin modellhaft.
The Music Factory as newsitem on the Chinese National Television (May 8, 2013)
or where love can take us, from 5 years old
It's autumn. A storm rages through the streets and Pierrot has to sweep up the fallen leaves. Work that never bores him, because after all, his fantasy can take him everywhere. Especially when he bumps into Colombine. Their hearts both jump. This is to the dismay of her guardian Pantalon, who sees it as his task to protect his niece from all the dangers of the world. But as we all know, love is not easy to tame.
And so it becomes winter. Pierrot clears the streets of snow and decides to build a snowman in front of Colombine's house. This to her uncle's consternation. When Pantalon destroys the snowman one night, Pierrot doesn't give up. Since, isn't it so, that snowmen can dance as well?
The Snowman is a theatrical concert based on the music of child prodigy Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 - 1957). Both his Schauspiel-Ouvertüre (1911) and his pantomime Der Schneemann (1910) are performed by three actors and the Münchner Philharmoniker, without a single word being spoken. Annechien Koerselman based her scenario on the libretto Der Schneemann by Julius Korngold (Korngold's father) and the libretto she wrote herself for the Schauspiel-Ouvertüre.
Photo © Tobias Hase
Credits Cast & Crew
Actors Florian Hackspiel (Pierrot), Angela Schausberger (Colombine), Béla Bufe (Pantalon)
Orchestra Münchner Philharmoniker
Composition Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 - 1957)
Conductor Gabriel Venzago
Concept & Stage direction Annechien Koerselman
Scenario Annechien Koerselman, based on Libretto Der Schneemann Julius Korngold (1860 - 1945) & Libretto Schauspiel-Ouvertüre Annechien Koerselman
Set- & Costumedesign Annett Lausberg
Lightdesign Annechien Koerselman
Make-up Lena Jaeger
Management Musical education department Lena Jaeger
Organisation Münchner Philharmoniker München (DE)
CALENDAR
Munich (DE) Isar Philharmony January 16, 2026, 10:00 & 15:00h
More information: Münchner Philharmoniker
Musical journey from Berlin to Broadway, from classical to jazz
This surprising concert transports the listener to the music of Kurt Weill and his contemporaries, blending classical music, jazz, and cabaret, from Berlin to Hollywood and Broadway, featuring lyricists like Bertold Brecht, Ogden Nash, and Maxwell Anderson. Featuring beloved classics like "Alabama Song," "September Song," "Lost in the Stars," and Charlie Chaplin's nostalgic "Smile. The composers of these songs came from turbulent times, when some were forced to flee persecution and emigrate in search of a better life.
The Hague String Trio (Justyna Briefjes, Julia Dinerstein, and Miriam Kirby) will perform, featuring singer Lucy Woodward, double bassist and arranger Marijn van Prooijen, and drummer Vinsent Planjer. Annechien Koerselman will stage the concert, and Nina Kraszewska will be in charge as soundengineer. Lucy Woodward has previously worked with Rod Stewart and Snarky Puppy, among others, and performed with numerous international jazz ensembles. The Hague String Trio recently celebrated its 20th anniversary and is known for its multi-layered interplay and acclaimed CDs. Marijn van Prooijen and Vinsent Planjer bring their rich backgrounds in classical, world music, and jazz to the mix, creating a moving and virtuoso ensemble.
Photo © De Schaapjesfabriek
Credits Cast & Crew
Concept & performance
The Hague String Trio:
Justyna Briefjes (violin)
Julia Dinerstein (viola)
Miriam Kirby (cello)
Singer Lucy Woodward
Double base Marijn van Prooijen
Drums Vinsent Planjer
Arrangements Marijn van Prooijen
Stage direction & Lightdesign Annechien Koerselman
Soundtechnics Jelle Pijnenborg
Lighttechnics Youri Wezenaar
Management The Hague String Trio Mary Kaptein
Organisation The Hague String Trio i.c.w Vinsent Planjer, Marijn van Prooijen & Lucy Woodward
CALENDAR
2026
Dordrecht (NL) Kunstmin January 23, 2026 20.15h
Heiloo (NL) Cultuurkoepel January 25, 2026
Harderwijk (NL) Catharinakapel March 04, 2026 20.15h Jazzdagen
Voorburg (NL) Theater Ludens May 16, 2026 20.30h
Venlo (NL) Domani May 17, 2026 16.00h
2027
Arnhem (NL) Musis April 07, 2027
The Hague Nieuwe Kerk April 17, 2027 20.15h
will be further complemented
More information: The Hague String Trio & Lucy Woodward
In June 2021, Wishful Singing started the Sing Strong project. Since then, the ensemble has helped more than 1500 post covid patients with their recovery, helping them with singing and breathing exercises. Now the company brings the catchy music from this program to the concert hall, where everyone who likes to sing is invited to join. Master jazz pianist Bert van den Brink and the singers of Wishful Singing welcome you to sing along with a.o. Avond by Boudewijn de Groot and Zing Vecht Huil… by Ramses Shaffy in a theatrical setting. Each song embodies in its own way the motto of the afternoon: sing strong!
Photo © Anne Claire de Breij
Credits Cast & Crew
Concept & Performance Wishful Singing (vocal female quintet):
Anne-Christine Wemekamp (1st soprano)
Maria Goetze (2nd soprano)
Marleen van Os (mezzo-soprano)
Stella Brüggen (1st alto)
Marjolein Stots (2nd alto)
Pianist Bert van den Brink
Guest Singers Mireille Bittar (Utrecht), Damani Leidsman, Bahghi Yemane (Amersfoort)
Stage direction & Lightdesign Annechien Koerselman
Recording technics Livestream Nico de Voogd (camera), Koen Keevel (sounddesign)
Production manager Erik Laarman (Utrecht), Jacqueline la Rooy (Amersfoort)
Organisation Wishful Singing Amsterdam i.c.w TivoliVredenburg Utrecht
Calender
2026
Heerhugowaard Cooltheater February 04, 2026 Sing along concert & Livestream
The Hague De Regentes February 08, 2026 Sing along concert & Livestream
2023
Utrecht (NL) TivoliVredenburg March 11, 2023 14.00h Sing along concert & Livestream
Amersfoort (NL) De Flint September 23, 2023 13.30h September Me festival Sing along concert
More information: Wishful Singing