MAAIKE OUBOTER

Muziekgebouw Eindhoven is a purpose built concert hall in the centre of Eindhoven with a history rooted in nearly a century of civic ambition. Eindhoven's quest for a dedicated music venue stretches back to the early twentieth century, with earlier attempts including the Rembrandt Theater on Vrijstraat, which opened in 1927 with room for a thousand visitors, and the Philips Recreation Center of 1929, whose converted dining hall served as a stopgap performance space for decades. The current building finally opened on 2 September 1992, when Queen Beatrix performed the official ceremony. It was originally named Muziekcentrum Frits Philips, honouring Frits Philips, the industrialist and music enthusiast whose name had become synonymous with the bond between the city and its most famous company. After a renovation the name was updated in 2010 to Muziekgebouw Frits Philips Eindhoven, and it has since been shortened to Muziekgebouw Eindhoven. The building contains two halls: a main hall with 1,250 seats and a smaller hall with 400 seats. Together they support a season of more than 280 concerts across roughly 300 days each year, drawing over 160,000 visitors annually. The programming spans classical music, jazz and pop, and the concert record reflects a wide range of acts from symphony orchestras and soloists to Dutch pop artists, tribute projects and festival events such as the Bridge Guitar Festival. Muziekgebouw Eindhoven also serves as one of the two home stages of Philharmonie Zuidnederland, the orchestra formed in 2013 from the merger of Het Brabants Orkest and the Limburgs Symphonie Orkest, with the other home base being Theater aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht.