Natura 2026
Monday 18 May / 20.15 - 22.15 hours
Utrecht Youth Choir led by. Thea Bakker, conductor / soloists The Garden - Irene Verburg, vocal coach / Heleen Vegter, piano / Daan Warnas, presentation
In this scintillating Youth Concert, youngsters from the school project will perform Sing your Song up. In recent months, they were coached by composer Jeppe Moulijn to write their own liederen around the theme Back to Nature. Together with the Utrecht Youth Choir and soloists from The Garden of Vocal Talent Netherlands, they perform a poetic programme around the seasons and water. Whether they sing contemporary music from Africa, a pop song like Bridge over Troubled Water or works by classical composers like Schubert and Schumann, the power of nature can be heard in every note.
UTRECHT YOUTH CHOIR
Cedrick Howoseb
Muhona
Yuval Engel
Geshem
Simon & Garfunkel
Bridge over troubled water
THE GARDEN
Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947)
Le printemps
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847)
Das erste Veilchen
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Frühlingslied
Seufzer
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Nachtigall, sie singt so schön
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Sommerruh
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Rote Rosenknospen
Franz Schreker (1878-1934)
Sommerfäden (from: 2 Gesänge op. 2)
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Herbstlied
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Der Tanz
Des Tages Weihe
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Schneeglöckchen
Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
Sure on this shining night
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Yver, vous n'etes qu'un villain
Great Hall
Evangelical Brotherhood
Zusterplein 12, 3703 CB Zeist
Thea Bakker / choral conductor
Thea Bakker studied church music, choral conducting and singing at the Utrecht Conservatoire, with piano and organ as subsidiary subjects. During and after her studies, she specialised in children's choral singing, solo singing and choral conducting during master classes at home and abroad. She is currently taking voice lessons according to the Lichtenberger® Method, the Klankwerk course and a choral conducting course. As a conductor and specialist in voice training, she is associated with various choirs. She also teaches in her own vocal practice and at the Vocal School Utrecht, which she founded, where she offers children the opportunity to make high-level vocal music.
Jeppe Moulijn / composer
Jeppe Moulijn studied orchestral conducting with Ed Spanjaard and Jac van Steen at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. He worked with leading orchestras and is a popular conductor in the world of student, youth and amateur orchestras. Moulijn is also a composer. His works are accessible, expressive and have a rich timbre. In many of his compositions, the human voice and poetry play an important role. His years of experience as a conductor are also reflected in his music, reflecting a long musical tradition from Bach to the present day. Moulijn also worked as an arranger with artists such as Trijntje Oosterhuis, Spinvis and Mathilde Santing, wrote film music and works for music theatre performances for children and young people.
Irene Verburg / choral conductor
Irene Verburg studied voice at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. After graduating, she won prestigious talent scholarships, including that of the Ministry of OCW and the Stipendium for the Bayreuther Festspiele. Verburg is a laureate of the International Vocal Competition ’s-Hertogenbosch and participated in the Wagner Academy. In recent years, she has been heard in various opera roles, concerts, oratorios and liedrecitals. She founded chamber music ensemble DUTCHmusicians, which performs mainly orchestralliederen arranged for the ensemble in small, changing line-ups.
Irene Verburg has been conductor of the National Boys' Choir since 2017 and leads the soloist classes. Since September 2023, she and László Norbert Nemes have been the artistic directors of Vocal Talent Netherlands and the conducting team for the four National Choirs.
Heleen Vegter / piano
After her piano principal study with Frank van de Laar at ArtEZ Conservatoire, the lied continued to hold a special attraction for Heleen Vegter. She took master classes with Elly Ameling, Robert Holl and Julius Drake, among others. As a Britten-Pears Young Artist, she worked with Angelika Kirchschlager, Anne Sofie von Otter and Kristian Bezuidenhout, among others. She has been heard at international festivals and played at Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ and the Concertgebouw, among others.
Vegter is initiator and artistic director of Stichting Leading Lied, which aims to make classical lied accessible to a wider audience. Outside her well-filled concert schedule, she teaches piano in her private practice in Arnhem and is co-organiser and board member of the national degree exams of the European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA).
Daan Warnas / presenter
Daan Warnas studied Cultural and Social Education at the Hogeschool Utrecht. There, he not only learned about the rules of good conversation, but also gained theatre inspiration. After an internship at the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision in Hilversum, Warnas felt like a fish out of water. That's where he first came from behind the scenes, in front of the scenes and didn't want to leave. He presented symposia, talk shows and other meetings with themes such as media, social work, public health care, education and entrepreneurship. Furthermore, Warnas is an audience warm-up host for the NPO Radio 2 Top 2000 every year.