deSingel is a
Belgian arts center. It is located on the Desguinlei in
Antwerp
Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...
. Its various stages, concert halls and exhibition spaces offer a manifold program of
music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
,
dance
Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
,
theater
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...
and
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...
. It is also home to the
Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, the
Flemish Architecture Institute (VAI), the Study Center for Flemish Music (SVM), the VDAB employment initiative for theatre technicians Sabbattini, the
Eastman dance company,
ChampdAction, I Solisti, detheatermaker and the
Spiegel String Quartet.
History
In 1867 composer
Peter Benoit
Peter Benoit (17 August 18348 March 1901) was a Flemish people, Flemish composer of Belgian nationality.
Biography
Petrus Leonardus Leopoldus Benoit was born in Harelbeke, Flanders, Belgium in 1834. He was taught music at an early age by his fa ...
was the director of the Flemish Music Conservatory in Antwerp. It was his dream to expand the school with a large concert and theatre hall, in order to involve the students of his school, as well as the general public, with what the international music and theater scenes had to offer. Fifteen years later the idea was approved by the Antwerp city council and plans for a new building were drawn up in 1883. However, it would take 80 more years for the new arts centre to open its doors.
In 1958, by now composer
Flor Peeters was general manager, the Ministry of Public Works commissioned architect
Léon Stynen to design a complex of buildings. 1964 saw the symbolic laying of the cornerstone. In 1968 the new music conservatory opened: an 8-shaped pavilion, with classrooms overlooking two gardens. The second phase of the construction - the concert hall, theater and library - was suspended due to a lack of funding.
In 1973 the governor of Antwerp, Andries Kinsbergen, proposed to include the public radio channel in the complex and the project was resumed. Construction of phase 2 began in 1979. The music conservatory was expanded with a section for
Radio 2 Antwerp, and two large halls and a library tower were added.
The size and potential of the new infrastructure far exceeded the needs of the music conservatory. New manager
Eugène Traey (former chairman of the
Queen Elisabeth Competition
The Queen Elisabeth Competition (, ) is an international competition for career-starting musicians held in City of Brussels, Brussels. The competition is named after Elisabeth of Bavaria, Queen of Belgium, Queen Elisabeth of Belgium (1876–1 ...
) hired
Frie Leysen on December 1, 1979, to help prepare for the opening. On November 4, 1980, the Cultural Center deSingel was officially opened, in the presence of
King Baudouin and
Queen Fabiola
Fabiola Fernanda María-de-las-Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón (11 June 1928 – 5 December 2014) was List of Belgian consorts, Queen of the Belgians as the wife of King Baudouin from their marriage in 1960 until his death in 1993. ...
.
In 1980 Frie Leysen became manager of deSingel. She instigated its development into an arts center with a unique vision and a strong international reputation. The Red Hall serves mainly for theater and dance performances. It regularly welcomes new productions by artists like
Romeo Castellucci
Romeo Castellucci (born August 4, 1960) is an Italian theatre director, playwright, artist and designer. Since the 1980s he has been one part of the European theatrical avant-garde.
Biography
Romeo Castellucci graduated with a degree in painti ...
,
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
Anne Teresa, Baroness De Keersmaeker (, born 1960 in Mechelen, Belgium, grew up in Wemmel) is a contemporary dance choreographer. The dance company constructed around her, , was in residence at La Monnaie in Brussels from 1992 to 2007.
Biogra ...
and her Rosas company,
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (born 10 March 1976) is a Belgian dancer and choreographer and director. He has made over 50 choreographic pieces and received two Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production, three Ballet Tanz awards for best cho ...
and his Eastman company,
Robert Wilson,
Ivo van Hove
Ivo van Hove (born 28 October 1958) is a Belgian theatre director. He is known for his Off-Broadway avant-garde experimental theatre productions. For over twenty years, he served as the director of the Toneelgroep Amsterdam. On Broadway, he has d ...
and
Toneelgroep Amsterdam
Toneelgroep Amsterdam is the largest repertory company in the Netherlands. Its home base is the Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg, a classical 19th century theatre building in the heart of Amsterdam. In 2018 Toneelgroep Amsterdam merged with Stadsscho ...
and other national and international theatre and dance companies. The Blue Hall is used mainly for
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...
concerts and sees recurrent visits by conductor
Philippe Herreweghe
Philippe Maria François Herreweghe, Knight Herreweghe (born 2 May 1947) is a Belgian conductor and choirmaster.
Herreweghe founded La Chapelle Royale and Collegium Vocale Gent and is renowned as a conductor, with a repertoire ranging from ...
and
Collegium Vocale Gent, pianist
András Schiff
Sir András Schiff (; born 21 December 1953) is a Hungarian-born British classical pianist and conductor. He has received numerous awards and honours, including the Grammy Award, Gramophone Award, Mozart Medal, and Royal Academy of Music Bac ...
and his Building Bridges project for young pianists, big international orchestras or small chamber music concerto's.
In 1987 the building was expanded once again. Architect Stynen added extra space for the music conservatory and a small public foyer for deSingel. Young architect
Stéphane Beel designed the doors that separate the corridors and halls from the entrance hall, which allows for ticket control. Within those doors he echoed the ‘potato’ shape of the oval windows that typify the designs of Stynen. In 1990 Beel curated a retrospective exhibition of Léon Stynen's design, underlining his affection for the deSingel-building.
In 1995, Beel was commissioned to draw up a master plan to reorganize and expand deSingel and the music conservatory. Phase one of the master plan was realized in 2000. The stage in the Red Hall was enlarged, artists' lounges were added and the artists' foyer was extended and windows were added to let the daylight in. In 2002 Minister for Culture
Bert Anciaux
Bert Jozef Herman Vic Anciaux (born 11 September 1959) is a Belgian politician and Vooruit faction leader in the Belgian Senate. He was one of the founders of Spirit (later known as the Flemish Progressives, then the Social Liberal Party, or ...
commissioned Beel to realize the second phase of the project and to also incorporate parts of the graduate school of Antwerp, which is now called
Artesis. The project was started in 2007 and completed in 2010.
In 2005 deSingel was recognized as one of the seven official art institutions of the
Flemish Community
The Flemish Community (, ) is one of the three institutional communities of Belgium, established by the Belgian constitution and having legal responsibilities only within the precise geographical boundaries of the Dutch-language area and of the ...
.
The technological part of the theatre tower was renovated in 2017, which included a new rigging system. deSingel now has two large, well-equipped stages. The Blue Hall can accommodate 940 melomaniacs, while the Red Hall has a capacity of 803 seats. This second hall was thoroughly renovated in 2019. The new wing also includes the Theater Studio, with 288 seats, and the Music Studio, with 150 seats, where smaller-scale performances take place. There is also an exhibition space which measures 400m² and a restaurant on the premises.
In September 2020 Hendrik Storme became the new general and artistic director of deSingel.
He succeeded Jerry Aerts, who retired after 19 years as general and artistic director.
References
External links
deSingel.be
{{Authority control
Arts centres
Performing arts centres
Buildings and structures in Antwerp