Singing Manifestations

Willy de Rooij thought that the choir was ready for a new challenge and with the opening of the exhibition Who owns the street? in 'the tower' of the museum's new building, she saw an opportunity to do so.
The four floors of the tower showed four different visions on the use of the street as a public space. In the basement, the Refugee Republic project provided insight into daily life in a refugee camp. On the first floor, under the title Do you hear the people sing?, one could see a contribution about public space as a place for protest. And at the very top of the tower, a space was reserved for smaller, changing project presentations about public space in Eindhoven.

Under the title Van Abbemuseum Choir invites... Willy devised a series of Singing Manifestations, for which she invited fellow choirs from the Eindhoven region to perform on the top floor and musicians with refugee status in the basement. We ourselves sang protest and street songs from different cultures and periods every concert on the first floor. In the three years that the exhibition was on view in the museum, from 2016 to 2019, we gave fifteen Singing Manifestations with as many guest choirs and even more guest musicians.

The first Singing Manifestation, entitled The street, a form of living together, took place on Thursday evening June 30, 2016. The Weerts Kamer­koor sang songs by Jannequin and an arrangement by Lennon/McCartney. In the basement Ahmet & Nart played a mix of Syrian and Western music.
The following choirs and musicians would contribute to the next fourteen Singing Manifestations:

September 29, 2016, Strijps Kamerkoor, AMN Band
November 24, 2016, Gestels Vocaal Ensemble, Nawras Altaky & Paul
January 29, 2017, Eindhovens Kamerkoor, Nawras Altaky & Ahmad Ashram
March 30, 2017, Vrouwen Vocaal Ensemble Sirena, Ehsan Kanani
June 27, 2017, Keskedee, Jaber Fayad
September 3, 2017, Zangroep ’t Slotakkoord, Ehsan Kanani & Farzam Karbasi
October 22, 2017, Studentenkoor Vokollage, Ehsan Omari
December 17, 2017, Kamerkoor Allegrezza, Nawras Altaky & Ahmad Ashram
Februari 18, 2017, Zangroep Otherwise, Mostafa & Mohammad & Hamid (Spot light)
April 15, 2018, Wilhelmina Mannenkoor, Mercan & Bülent Kocuroglu
June 17, 2018, Veldhovens Kamerkoor, Sozdar Ibrahim
September 16, 2018, Mannenakkoord, Mohamad & Hamed & Ahmad
November 18, 2018, Southern Comfort Barber Gals, Trio Nur (Hamed Alshabee, Amer Shanati, Karim Darwish)
January 13, 2019, Southern Comfort Barber Mates, Gharib & Friends