“Miniatures of music and visual arts”, is an initiative of violinist and artistic director Tosca Opdam of this project.
Artists are among those whom the coronavirus has forced to live in a cramped ‘miniature’ way. Concerts have been cancelled and income has evaporated. However, musicians are individually working very hard on their careers, often without a safety net. Their talent, passion and persistence are admirable and that is why the Toscata Foundation is doing its utmost to guarantee a fair recompense for these musical endeavors.

Miniatures includes a series of 12 short online concerts that connect art works to musical themes. The first series is inspired by a series of portraits of female artists, part of the current exhibition In the picture at the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam.
The Teylers Museum, the first and oldest museum in the Netherlands, offers a musical connection with the romantic realism of John Constable, whose paintings will be exhibited at the Teylers from mid September 2020.
At the Ceramics Museum Princessehof in Leeuwarden, the work of Maurits Escher, born at this former city palace, will be the connecting theme.

The collaboration with these three museums will offer the musicians an additional possibility, nationally and internationally, to reach a global audience.
During this pandemic, when these wonderful collections are not yet open for everybody to enjoy, museums are delighted by this opportunity to extend the exhibited works in another artistic dimension.

Performers

The concerts will be a mixture in instrumentation (solo, duo, trio), performed by
Tosca Opdam, violin,
Quirine Viersen, cello,
Lidy Blijdorp, cello
Dana Zemtsov, viola,
Petra van der Heide, harp
Vincent van Amsterdam, accordion

Every “miniature” will be around 12 minutes and includes a:

• Short introduction by the curator of the said museum
• Short introduction by Tosca Opdam
• Concert