Photo: De Oergong bij Koehool aan het Wad

Last summer thousands of visitors enjoyed the midsummer Wadden concert near Koehool in Fryslân, a project of the composer Sytze Pruiksma and the De Bazuin brass band from Tzummarum, conducted by Marten Miedema. During our festival weekend a special edition of this musical performance is programmed on Friday 14 October and Saturday 15 October. This time in the St. Bonifatius Church in Leeuwarden featuring the organ player Reitze Smits on the church’s new Adema organ. 

Last June the musical performance De Oergong took place as midsummer Wadden concert near Koehool in Fryslân. Here visitors listened to Images of a Sea performed among others by its composer Sytze Pruiksma and De Bazuin brass band from Tzummarum, conducted by Marten Miedema. De Oergong plays with the rhythm of time, the seasons as well as the coming and going of the tides, from salt to fresh, warmth and coldness, death and new life, in terms of both its time signature as well as its sound colours. The musicians undertake this musical journey together with you: connecting and ultimately letting go. Sa is it libben (Frisian: Such is life).


Special edition of De Oergong at an impressive location
Our general manager Mark Hospers on De Oergong at our festival: “De Oergong is a brilliant project that fits our festival perfectly, both performance as well as theme-wise.” We often work with unique collaborations of local musicians/orchestras and other makers, such as Meindert Talma’s De Domela Passie (2019), Pete Lockett’s the Pasveerkorps  (2019) and Eartheater with a northern classical ensemble (2021). Mark explains: “These are the kind of multidisciplinary projects with various makers we like to welcome at our festival, staged on beautiful locations in the Leeuwarden city centre, which in themselves contribute to our festival’s distinctive atmosphere. Even before De Oergong was performed on the Wadden, we were looking together with Sytze Pruiksma for a special site for this project. And we indeed found it in the impressive Sint Bonifatius Church with its new Adema organ. In the Sint Bonifatius Church this performance will really come into its own; it will be brilliant, both musically as well as visually.”

De Oergong will be performed at the following moments during our festival weekend:
friday 14 october 20:30 - 21:45
saturday 15 october 16:30 - 17:45 & 20:00 - 21:15
Bonifatiuskerk