.svg?ext=.svg){kind=logo}
Academic year 2025/26 is a year of celebration: from November through June, HKU’s Utrechts Conservatorium is marking its 150th anniversary. The highlight is the grand finale The Treasure of Utrecht, taking place on Sunday 28 June: a musical procession combined with a closing concert around a previously unperformed composition by Louis Andriessen, titled Red Rackham’s Treasure.
This spectacle is a musical homage to Utrecht’s greatest composer of all time, and a gathering of all the disciplines represented within HKU’s Utrechts Conservatorium. The carillon of the Dom Tower will participate both during the procession and in the concert, alongside musicians on the streets and at Mariaplaats.
About the piece – Red Rackham’s Treasure:
Louis Andriessen, born and raised in Utrecht and descended from a well-known family of Utrecht composers, wrote De Schat van Scharlaken Rackham (or Red Rackham’s Treasure) in 1970, commissioned by the City of Utrecht for the Utrecht Music School, then located on Dom Square. The music is written as a graphic composition on a nine-metre-long roll of wallpaper, adorned with shapes, musical symbols and texts. Andriessen was inspired by the Tintin comic Red Rackham’s Treasure (published in 1944).
The music is not written in traditional Western notation of its unconventional notation. Instead, it's a graphical representation that – in the words of Couperus: “demands a great deal of creativity” from the performers. The score includes directions like “play a chord your mother likes,” “play a chord with as many tones as possible” and “invent new chords by listening attentively to each other.” It’s uncertain whether the piece has ever been performed before.
After its publication in 1970, the work disappeared from sight for a long time. By now, it has resurfaced again and deserves an official world premiere, 56 years after its conception.
Student involvement
Students from all departments at the HKU Utrechts Conservatorium will work on parts of the score during the 2025/26 academic year. This will be done partly under the supervision of teachers Anne-Maartje Lemereis (also “Composer of the Netherlands”), Esmée Olthuis, and Konrad Kosseleck. Second-year students from the Music in Education programme will collaborate with primary and secondary school pupils in Utrecht to create new graphic compositions based on the original score, assisted by Lemereis.
Kenza Koutchoukali (1988), an opera and music-theatre director, will closely oversee the process from September 2025 and is responsible for the final staging of the spectacle.
Direction
The conductor has a special, and very liberal, role: rather than “directing,” they will act more as a co-ordinator, which aligns with Andriessen’s own vision. Choire conducting students and Musician 3.0 students will prepare for the performance using the kobranie method, a musical improvisation style in which groups play together under visual guidance from a lead figure. This method suits the free-form nature of Andriessen’s composition.
Grande finale
The premiere will take place at Mariaplaats. Before the concert, a musical parade will proceed from Domplein to Mariaplaats. Around 300 musicians – students, alumni, and schoolchildren from Utrecht – will perform parts of Andriessen’s composition. Additionally, singers and wind instrument players will perform from the windows of the main building, complementing the live street performance.
The Dom Tower’s carillon player will perform live with the musicians on Mariaplaats. A large screen in front of the main building will project the graphic score in real time, enabling the audience to follow the course of the composition.
Along with Red Rackham’s Treasure, the programme will include other Utrecht compositions, including works by Jurriaan and Hendrik Andriessen (Louis’s brother and father, respectively).
After the musical finale, there will be a celebration well into the evening, featuring music from students and alumni of HKU Utrechts Conservatorium.
Collaboration with Music & Technology:
Because the Dom Tower and Mariaplaats are roughly 400 metres apart, the carillonist and the Mariaplaats musicians cannot play in perfect synchrony due to sound delay. Students from Music & Technology will work in 2025/26 to enable synchronisation – through in-ear monitoring and smart use of a click track.
Countdown with Boston Conservatory:
There will be a joint countdown moment with Boston: students and teachers from the Boston Conservatory will join via video link so that the premiere can be followed live there. Louis Andriessen had lots of infliuence in the US and became very succesful there. His work is published by an American label that also publishes Steve Reich.
Lasting memorial
On Sunday 28 June, a more-than-life-size high-quality print of the original graphic score will be unveiled in the K&W building as a permanent tribute to Andriessen and his Utrecht heritage.
Pre-shows:
Before the premiere, parts of the composition, edited by students, will be performed during the Louis Andriessen Day on Sunday 5 June at Muziekgebouw Amsterdam.