New York used to be New Amsterdam: a Dutch settlement on Manhattan. Its first inhabitants arrived from the Low Countries in the early seventeenth century and brought their way of life with them. Our protagonist, Jacob Steendam, was the first poet of New Amsterdam. From his house on Pearl Street, he walked the streets of the small port-town and listened to the sounds rising from the many taverns and bars: cheers and brawls, intermixed with bawdy songs.

As in Old Amsterdam, weddings and parties were not complete without a rousing song, and Steendam supplied a good number of them, bearing witness to the daily life in Manhattan around 1660. In this very special program, Camerata Trajectina follows in Steendam’s footsteps and presents Dutch music that once echoed off the walls of the houses of New Amsterdam. Interspersed with anecdotes and quotes from original sources, this program resurrects the soundscape and musical culture of Dutch Manhattan, thus providing a unique perspective on early New York.

For this program, Camerata Trajectina teams up with Dr. Jaap Jacobs, an eminent historian of Dutch New York and author of many books and articles on New Amsterdam and its people, at the Skinner Hall of Music at Vassar College.

The combination of Camerata’s long experience in recreating seventeenth-century Dutch music and Jacobs’s historical expertise ensures that this concert will provide the audience with an exhilarating and unforgettable musical experience.

Biographies:

Camerata Trajectina has made its name as the “Musical Treasury of the Netherlands.” Their programs combine popular ditties of the 17th century with works of the great Renaissance and Baroque composers, often presented against a political, literary, or artistic backdrop. For over 45 years, they have performed countless times at national memorials and royal visits, on radio and on television. They have made nearly 50 recordings and were awarded an Edison Klassiek prize for their recording of the Antwerp Songbook.

In 2014, Camerata Trajectina received the Visser-Neerlandia award for culture from the Algemeen-Nederlands Verbond. The jury was laudatory: “Thanks to their meticulous research and performance, Camerata Trajectina has enriched our understanding of Dutch music from the Middle Ages to the early Baroque. The ensemble brings to light a treasure-trove of previously unknown works, performed passionately and expertly, reaching a wide range of culture enthusiasts.”

Jaap Jacobs (PhD Leiden, 1999) is affiliated with the University of St Andrews. He has specialized in the early American history, specifically the Dutch in the Americas in the early modern period. He has taught at universities in the Netherlands, the United States, and the United Kingdom. His publications on Dutch New York include The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-Century America (Cornell University Press, 2009) and “The First Arrival of Enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam,” New York History, forthcoming August 2023. He is currently working on a biography of Petrus Stuyvesant.

Venue:

This program is presented in partnership with Vassar College and will be taking place in the Skinner Hall of Music. Vassar College is located at 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604. The Skinner Hall of Music can be seen on this map, as building #42. 

This program is free and open to the public.

Image Credit: Camerata Trajectina. Photography by Foppe Schut, artwork by Sophie van Boven, Green Room Creatives.

This program is supported by the Dutch Culture USA program of the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in New York, and is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.