Wed, Jul 2, 2025
On June 21st, more than 200,000 people strolled along the A10, which for one day had been transformed into a festival ground celebrating Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary. The Concertgebouw Orchestra was also present, with our brass section performing musical highlights in the heat.
The brass players performed at the end of the morning. “The heat wasn’t so bad then,” bass and tenor trombonist Martin Schippers tells us. “And fortunately, the stage had a canopy. Our instruments can take the heat well – a violin not so much, the glue could melt, and wooden wind instruments like the oboe respond well to high temperatures either.”
The brass players were well-prepared, and with plenty of water bottles and a shady spot between the stage and the motorway guardrail, they were able to cope with the tropical temperatures just fine. As soon as the first notes sounded, a curious audience gathered. Passersby stopped to listen, moved to the Spanish rhythms of Albéniz, and were then treated to a Bach cantata. “Even in the hustle and bustle of an outdoor festival, Bach’s music works – it only attracted more people,” says Martin. They closed with a Gershwin medley that provided a swinging finale.
As one visitor said: “Normally you’re somewhere at the back of the stage – now we just encounter you in the wild.” For our musicians, that direct contact with the audience was a special experience too.
