A website and visual identity for the Utrecht Student Orchestra, or USConcert. While being the oldest still active orchestra in The Netherlands, founded in 1824, they are young and dynamic; the orchestra solely exists of university students who alongside their studies make time to make music together. The orchestra specialises in late-romantic works with a special emphasis on Dutch composers.
The new website is a step into the future for this historic orchestra, giving it a new and dynamic look, without being too forward about it. The website offers plenty space for the orchestra’s rich history and introduces a new color scheme based on the previous single color story. By adding a warm and earthy purple to the vivid orange/red the historic yet youthful character of the orchestra is emphasised.
Staatsgreep
In 2017 together with writer and mezzo-soprano Elea Bekkers I founded “Staatsgreep”, an art collective focussed on radical new art. With Staatsgreep Elea and I want to take modern art out of high-society theatres and operahouses and bring it to the audience instead. By adressing modern issues in a confronting yet accessible way STAATSGREEP makes art part of modern-day society again.
Staatsgreep is currently working on multiple projects. Our most ambitious project is a music-theater piece in three acts called “Zij die Achterbleven”, or “Those who were left behind”. This operatic triptych tells the stories of two individuals who, through each-others fate, lose grip on reality. “Zij die Achterbleven” combines music, theater and dance into one artwork, making it a true gesamtkunstwerk. The first act “De Man die afdreef op de Zee”, or “The man who drifted off at sea”, premièred at my final examn in composition in 2017. Currently work has started on the third act.
In 2018 we launched a clothing line by the name of “Gay Cult” consisting only of second-hand clothing and fabrics and making them into new pieces. The various designed prints, varying from “consume” to “family disappointment”, target the growing consumerism crisis worldwide, while also aiming to shine a light on “cults”, minority groups which by popular media have gained a negative or wrong image such as the LGBT+ community.
