At the end of the 2020/2021 season, we bid farewell to both the South Beach Theatre and our chief conductor Nicholas Collon.

South Beach Theatre

After the Dr Anton Philipszaal was closed and demolished in mid-2015, we moved to our temporary home: the Zuiderstrandtheater near the Scheveningen harbor. In this beautiful theater by the sea we had the opportunity to give numerous, mostly sold-out concerts and (family) performances, with exceptional conductors and soloists such as Nicholas Collon, Richard Egarr, Jun Märkl, Jan Willem de Vriend, Antony Hermus, Reinbert de Leeuw, Lucas and Arthur Jussen, Liza Ferschtman, Ronald Brautigam and our artists in residence Boris Giltburg, Kian Soltani and Baiba Skride. But we also collaborated with Dans- en Muziekcentrum Den Haag and Kwekers in de Kunst in several Scheveningen community operas and with the Dutch Don't Dance Division in several Christmas productions.

The Zuiderstrandtheater also launched new, successful series such as MasterClassics and Lazy Sunday and even an entirely new festival: Wanderlust. Also new in the Zuiderstrandtheater was the One Minute Symphony: master composition students from the Royal Conservatoire The Hague meet residents of neighborhoods in The Hague and translate this meeting into a one-minute symphony.

Over the past six years we have developed into an orchestra that is always looking for the relevance of music in a contemporary, young and fresh way. The period at the Zuiderstrandtheater gave us the opportunity to develop and try out new concert formats that reached new audiences. We will take all the knowledge and experience we gained at the Zuiderstrandtheater to Amare.

Nicholas Collon

During the period of the Residentie Orkest at the Zuiderstrand Theater, Nicholas Collon was with our orchestra for five years, first for two years as permanent conductor and since 2018 as chief conductor and artistic advisor. During that time he has given many special concerts with us, including several symphonies by Mahler, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, among others, numerous MasterClassics, Symphonic Junctions at Paard and the annual Prince's Day Concerts.

Nicholas has also performed with the orchestra numerous times at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht and at De Doelen in Rotterdam within their major series such as Robeco, Zondagochtend Concert, AvroTros Vrijdagconcert and the NTR Zaterdagmatinee. The music of Dutch composers also took center stage, works by Calliope Tsoupaki, Theo Verbey and Bram Kortekaas were highlights on NPO Radio 4. We look back with gratitude and look forward to Nicholas' visits as guest conductor.

After the summer we will move to the new cultural complex on the Spui in The Hague: Amare. Here, together with Royal Conservatoire The Hague and Nederlands Dans Theater, we will become the new house companies.