***Afgelast*** Opera in development: The Task of Being

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Na een eerste residentie met solisten Laura Bohn en Kevin Walton presenteert Thomas Myrmel scènes en fragmenten die de basis vormen voor The Task of Being, een nieuwe muziektheatervoorstelling in samenwerking met Orkest de Ereprijs.

Vertrekkend vanuit teksten van Kafka en Beckett en persoonlijke getuigenissen uit Minneapolis, onderzoekt The Task of Being hoe een individu zich kan verzetten tegen onderdrukking — niet alleen tegen de macht van de staat, maar ook tegen de eenzaamheid die die macht kan creëren. Wanneer mensen van elkaar geïsoleerd raken, wordt verzet moeilijker. Maar wat gebeurt er wanneer mensen elkaar juist weer weten te vinden?

De voorstelling beweegt zich in een Kafkaëske, associatieve wereld waarin persoonlijke verhalen en politieke gebeurtenissen in elkaar grijpen. Vanuit Minneapolis ontstaat daarbij een mogelijk antwoord: Neighborism — het idee dat onderlinge verbondenheid tussen buren niet alleen een middel tot verzet is, maar wellicht het diepere doel ervan.

Persoonlijke verbinding
Thomas: ‘Dit onderwerp ligt voor mij dichtbij. Ik kom zelf uit Minneapolis en woonde er van 2019 tot 2023 opnieuw, samen met mijn echtgenoot en onze twee kinderen. In die jaren kwamen we als gemeenschap door een uitzonderlijke opeenstapeling van gebeurtenissen: Covid, de moord op George Floyd op een steenworp afstand van ons huis, de daklozenkampen tijdens de rellen, en alles wat daarop volgde.

Juist in die periode raakten we sterk verbonden met onze buren en vrienden. De gebeurtenissen brachten een vorm van nabijheid en solidariteit voort die ik niet eerder zo had ervaren.

Vanuit die verbondenheid hebben we ook de gebeurtenissen van december 2025 tot en met februari 2026 van zeer dichtbij meegemaakt, toen Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis hard optrad en de stad tot voorbeeld probeerde te maken van haar beleid.

Als kunstenaar en als directe getuige wil ik voorkomen dat deze periode van chaos, geweld en verzet verdwijnt tussen de vele verontrustende headlines van deze tijd. The Task of Being is een poging om die ervaringen vast te houden en dichtbij een publiek te brengen: persoonlijke verhalen worden verweven met Kafka’s onderzoek naar bureaucratie en eenzaamheid, en met de vraag hoe je menselijk blijft binnen een systeem dat je juist van anderen probeert los te maken.’

Bio’s
Kevin Walton trained as an actor with The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, then studied singing at The Royal Academy of Music and Opera School, London. He’s a multi-faceted performer and theatre maker with a thirty-year career covering a broad range of disciplines: from classical and contemporary theatre and opera, to award-winning music theatre productions; from medieval and renaissance ensembles, to experimental theater and performance art; it also includes film, TV, session singing and voice overs.

Laura Bohn is a Seattle-born soprano and multi-faceted performer whose career spans opera, music theatre, contemporary performance, and interdisciplinary work in the US and Europe. She has performed leading roles with companies and orchestras including Nederlandse Reisopera, West Edge Opera, Dallas Opera, The Industry, Silbersee Opera, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and has appeared at major venues and festivals across Europe and North America. A champion of living composers, she has premiered works by Anne LeBaron, Kamala Sankaram, Erling Wold, Ellen Reid and others. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and California Institute of the Arts, she is based in Amsterdam.

Thomas Myrmel is a composer, performer and multifaceted artist whose work brings together social engagement, craftsmanship and creative expression. He creates music theatre, performance art and autonomous music, presenting his work at festivals and venues across Europe, the Middle East, the USA and Japan. He is a co-founder of The Living Room(s), Music for Music, composer collective Monotak and Splendor.

Laura Bohn – Mezzosopraan
Kevin Walton – Bariton
Ties Mellema – Baritonsax
Wytze de Swart – Altsax
Thomas Myrmel – Trombone

Ledenconcert
Splendor kan alleen de onafhankelijke vrijplaats zijn die het is, dankzij de leden die ons steunen. Wij betalen hen terug met dat waar wij voor leven: muziek. Elk jaar geven alle Splendormuzikanten één concert dat gratis toegankelijk is voor deze groep steunpilaren aan wie Splendor haar bestaan dag in dag uit te danken heeft. Samen met de vele andere events betekent dit dat onze leden voor €9,99 p/m (en €4,99 voor minima en studenten!) ruim 50 concerten per jaar gratis kunnen bezoeken – en ze op alle overige concerten korting krijgen. Geen slechte deal, toch?

Dankzij de leden kan Splendor onafhankelijk blijven, wat de enige manier is om échte vrijheid te behouden in programmering, experimenten, het nemen van risico’s en het bieden van een springplank aan jonge, opkomende artiesten. Wie een andere plek kan noemen waar géén centrale programmeur is, waar elk moment last-minute concerten kunnen worden ingepland, waar geen backstage is en artiesten en publiek constant door elkaar lopen en met elkaar aan de bar hangen, waar mysterieuze hersenspinsels kunnen worden gepresenteerd die elders vaak als te riskant worden bestempeld, en die toch garant blijft staan voor hoge kwaliteit door de top van de Nederlandse muziekscene in deze creatieve speeltuin te laten rondrazen, die krijgt een gratis lidmaatschap!

Word je liever geen lid maar ben je wel geïnteresseerd in dit concert? Dan ben je natuurlijk meer dan welkom! Hieronder kan je een kaartje kopen.

-ENGELS-OT-Kafka comes to Minneapolis: ICE occupation & Neighborism

-ENGELS-

Unfortunately this concert has been cancelled.
Ticket buyers will be informed

Following an initial residency with soloists Laura Bohn and Kevin Walton, Thomas Myrmel presents scenes and fragments that form the foundation for The Task of Being, a new music theatre production in collaboration with Orkest de Ereprijs.

Drawing on texts by Kafka and Beckett, as well as personal testimonies from Minneapolis, The Task of Being explores how an individual can resist oppression — not only the power of the state, but also the loneliness that such power can create. When people become isolated from one another, resistance becomes more difficult. But what happens when people manage to find their way back to one another?

The performance unfolds in a Kafkaesque, associative world in which personal stories and political events become intertwined. From Minneapolis emerges a possible answer: Neighborism — the idea that connection between neighbors is not only a means of resistance, but perhaps its deeper purpose.

Personal Connection
Thomas: “This subject is deeply personal to me. I am originally from Minneapolis and moved back there in 2019, where I lived until 2023 with my husband and our two children. During those years, our community experienced an extraordinary succession of events: Covid, the murder of George Floyd just a few blocks from our home, the homeless encampments during the unrest, and everything that followed.
It was precisely during this period that we became deeply connected to our neighbors and friends. These events brought about a sense of closeness and solidarity that I had never experienced before.

From that position of connection, we also experienced the events of December 2025 through February 2026 at very close range, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out a forceful crackdown in Minneapolis and sought to make the city an example of its immigration enforcement policies.

As an artist and a direct witness, I want to prevent this period of chaos, violence, and resistance from disappearing among the many disturbing headlines of our time. The Task of Being is an attempt to hold on to these experiences and bring them close to an audience: personal stories are interwoven with Kafka’s exploration of bureaucracy and loneliness, and with the question of how to remain human within a system that seeks to separate us from one another.”

Laura Bohn – Mezzo Sopraan
Kevin Walton – Baritone
Ties Mellema – Baritone sax
Wytze de Swart – Alto sax
Thomas Myrmel – Trombone

Bio’s
Kevin Walton trained as an actor with The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, then studied singing at The Royal Academy of Music and Opera School, London. He’s a multi-faceted performer and theatre maker with a thirty-year career covering a broad range of disciplines: from classical and contemporary theatre and opera, to award-winning music theatre productions; from medieval and renaissance ensembles, to experimental theater and performance art; it also includes film, TV, session singing and voice overs.

Laura Bohn is a Seattle-born soprano and multi-faceted performer whose career spans opera, music theatre, contemporary performance, and interdisciplinary work in the US and Europe. She has performed leading roles with companies and orchestras including Nederlandse Reisopera, West Edge Opera, Dallas Opera, The Industry, Silbersee Opera, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and has appeared at major venues and festivals across Europe and North America. A champion of living composers, she has premiered works by Anne LeBaron, Kamala Sankaram, Erling Wold, Ellen Reid and others. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and California Institute of the Arts, she is based in Amsterdam.

Thomas Myrmel is a composer, performer and multifaceted artist whose work brings together social engagement, craftsmanship and creative expression. He creates music theatre, performance art and autonomous music, presenting his work at festivals and venues across Europe, the Middle East, the USA and Japan. He is a co-founder of The Living Room(s), Music for Music, composer collective Monotak and Splendor.

Member concert
Splendor can only be the independent and free hub that it is, thanks to the members who support us. We pay them back with our specialty: music. Every year, all Splendor musicians play one concert that’s free for this crucial group to whom Splendor owes its everyday existence. Combined with many other events, this means that our members have free entrance to over 50 concerts a year for €9,99 p/m (and €4,99 p/m for minima and students!) – and receive a discount for all other concerts. Pretty good deal, right?

The members enable Splendor to remain independent, which is the only way to secure real freedom in programming, experimentation, risk-taking and the promotion of young, upcoming artists. If you can think of another place without a central programming, where last-minute concerts can be planned any moment, where there is no backstage and artists and audience are constantly mingling and hanging out at the bar, where mysterious creative outbursts can be presented that are often labeled ‘too risky’ elsewhere, and that still guarantees high quality by unleashing the best of The Netherlands’ music scene in this creative playground – you get a free membership!

Would you rather just visit this concert without becoming a member? You’re more than welcome! Buy your ticket(s) below.