Around the world in 80 hours

Airports around the world are rapidly developing from a necessary transfer point in travelling to multi-purpose meeting places of the world. Not only the mechanics of travelling, but more and more the quality of time spent at the airports determine the attractiveness of airports. Airports develop into multi-dimensional “solution spaces” aimed at providing guests the facilities, space and atmosphere in which the create there personal solutions for work, leisure, learning and meeting. Personal, momentary, easy and convenient. Unlike the vast majority of composed music, this resembles exactly the music of Simon ten Holt. In the same way as airports provide frameworks and facilities, Simeon’s music consists of building blocks, with which the performing artists (mostly multiple grand piano’s)  “play”, and the actual composition “emerges” from  that interaction. And yet, when you hear it, it sounds natural, harmonic and elegant, as if it all were pre-described and fully composed. As he himself has expressed it: “it’s like a three dimensional shape growing in a well defined space”. Every time different, yet well identifiable and with a strong, recognizable identity. Easy accessible for the superficial audience, intriguing and exciting for the interested listener. The music by the Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt is beautiful, relaxing tonal music for keyboards, which gives a feeling of absence of time. Since passengers travel through several time-zones, they already have left their feeling for time. Canto Ostinato and Horizon, both compositions by Ten Holt, are pieces that consist of sepaate parts which can be combined in several ways. Every performance is different since matters like duration, dynamics, cumulating and articulation are in control by the performers. The performers combine instantly, more like a non-stop improvisation. Each piece can last for four hours, and can be played by four pianists at four Grand Pianos. The pianists navigate with each other by giving signals which is interesting for the audience to watch.  Music that is not just Concert Hall compatible, but also, and uniquely compatible with performing while people move around. To perform this music in an Airport, where communication is essential, is interesting for us since the music will be a mixture of improvisation, written music, and typical sounds from an Airport such as announcements, people and traffic. The flexible music gives the listener the possibility to jump into it, listen a bit and leave. We had good experiences with performances at major Railroad Stations in The Netherlands like Utrecht CS, Amsterdam CS and Groningen CS. Very successful indeed was a 24 hour Ten Holt marathon performance  (at the occasion of his 80th birthday) in the Vredenburg Music Theatre in Utrecht in 2002. People move in an out, eat, drink, meet, all while the music develops its themes, rhythms and tunes. Meanwhile his music is performed all over the world, where it commands high praise from the audience. Concerts have been given from Australia to Siberia, from the US to ……… A group of dedicated musicians have now developed a plan to bring Simeon’s music literally around the world. The idea is to bring his music to people at places where cultures meet, where people experience new aspects of the world around them. Not in the form of “sit-down-and-listen” concerts, but literally in the middle of where people are. Providing them with a new dimension of quality space and time, in which they can participate to choice. To do so, we are planning an International Airport Concert Series, in which we would like to introduce our new concept: Around the World in 80 Hours. We will give four-hour-non-stop-concerts at twenty Airports worldwide. For this, we would like to cooperate with these airports. Cooperate with them in exploring the musical dimensions of there endeavours to create quality space and time for their guests. Very little indeed is needed: 4 grand piano’s and a 4 x 4 meter space in the public areas in the middle of the every day airport life.