In the 80’s of the last century Reinbert de Leeuw was increasingly popular at home and abroad and achieved great successes with his Schönberg Ensemble. In 1986 along with other ensembles they started the succesful series Proms in Paradiso, which still continues under the name Donderdagavondserie in the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ in Amsterdam.
Along the way De Leeuw is an almost unavoidable factor in the artworld at home. In the 70’s he succeeded in achieving better subsidies for composers, with as high point the establishment of the Fund for Creative Soundart in 1982. Thanks to his efforts more subsidies become available for smaller specialised ensembles.
In 1989 his suspected power was attacked in the collection De Cultuur-elite of Nederland, which examined the power structures in the music world. Author Luc Knödler discovered that the Schönberg Ensemble swallowed up one third of the total budget for chamber music. The article caused a storm, mostly to the detriment of the author.
Five years later another battle started, this time about the Fund for Creative Soundart. Traditional composers complained that the Fund gave too much support to the avant-gardistes around De Leeuw. This was vigorously denied. In 2006 De Boer asked for subsidy for his serial composition Bubbles based on random notes by his sons. He gets his money and lots of praise.
Wednesday 7th Dec 21.00
Repeated Thursday 8th Dec 22.00
