Renske Vrolijk - RVSMILE

U-turn October

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October 24, 2005

Culture - Dutch treat

My last post was about the proposed termination of transmitting classical music on public radio in the Netherlands through the FM band. Not a happy story. And although I thought otherwise, it is still under investigation. (You can post your protest here).

In recent history Holland cultural life has been rich and strongly subsidized. At this very moment classical and contemporary music is under heavy pressure, and as one of the broadcasting senior managers said it last week:"under pressure solid things become fluid".

Summarizing:


  • Three mayor broadcasting organizations closed down their classical music departments.

  • The national daily AD (Algemeen Dagblad) doesn't write about classical music anymore.

  • The main broadcasting organization NPS will (if plans are carried out) be liquidated in 2008. This is the number one organization spending time on classical/contemporary music and arts.

  • Radio4 - national Dutch classical music channel will only transmit through cable and not FM frequency.

  • The mayor fund for supporting Dutch composers Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst will be terminated by January first 2007.

  • Donemus - the Dutch publisher for new music almost went bankrupt two years ago and is still at risk.

On the upside of things is that Italian media are in a far worse state than Dutch countreparts with media-tycoon Berlusconi as prime-minister. I read in a recent article that people are trying to escape the emptiness of television and that they rediscovering the theatres again. So may be, their is still hope.

Posted by Renske at October 24, 2005 11:16 AM |