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Geschreven door Léon Lodewick

zondag 25 april 2010 01:00

The Royal Choir Society Mastreechter Staar: one of most famous male choirs in the Netherlands.

The ‘Staar’ was founded in 1883 and in 1899 it was granted the designation ‘Royal’. Since 1903 the choir has had the successive Queens of The Netherlands as patroness. At present HM Queen Beatrix is patroness of the ‘Staar’.
With more than 150 singers the Staar is the biggest male concert choir in The Netherlands. Each year the choir gives about 20 concerts at home and abroad in the form of an evening performance. The repertoire is varied and comprises almost all types of music. Thanks to its own extensive archives, the Staar can choose from more than 3.000 works of music.

Concerts

These cover religious, classical and modern works and music from operas, operettas and musicals as well as pop music. The repertoire is regularly renewed by adding works that have been specially arranged or adapted for the Staar. The last few years the Staar has been performing in theatres with theme-concerts. The Verdi-concerts and the ‘From Bach to Beatles’-concerts were visited by tens of thousands of devotees. In 2008/2009 the Staar performed with a jubilee programme.

Jubilee 125 years Mastreechter Staar

The Royal Choir Society ‘Mastreechter Staar’ has a rich history. In 2008 it was 125 years ago that it was founded and this was celebrated in a grand way. In 2008 there were a number of performances in collaboration with the ‘Limburg Symphony Orchestra’ which celebrated its 125 anniversary in the same year. Besides three New Year concerts and two mega concerts in Limburg there were two gala concerts of which one was in the presence of Princess Maxima, wife of the future King of The Netherlands. During 2008 and 2009 the Staar performed with the programme ‘Mastreechter Staar 125 years’. This is also the title of a CD which is for sale on the market. In 2009 the Mastreechter Staar gave jubilee concerts in London and Luxemburg and the choir did a concert-tour in Slovenia with performances in Ljubljana and Bled as well as other places.

André Rieu

In 2008 the Mastreechter Staar sang at the Vrijthof in Maastricht in the shows of the world-famous André Rieu. The latter was so enthusiastic about the collaboration and the quality of the choir that he also invited the Staar for his mega-concerts in Arnhem (Gelredome), Amsterdam (Amsterdam Arena) and Hasselt (Belgium).

Chief conductor of the Mastreechter Staar is Paul Voncken. At the piano Michiel Ballhaus accompanies the Staar.

Regular soloist is bass baritone Bèr Schellings.

Feel free to contact us.