OperaHole to Launch Anti-Concert Series in Copenhagen

The Copenhagen based production collective OperaHole has announced the anti-koncertseries – a collection of concert-works that break the unwritten rules of classical concert formats. The series debuts with your move on January 16, 2027, at Basement, and continues with the premier performance of audience workshop (boo!) on February 27, 2027, at Dansekapellet.

audience workshop (boo!) takes aim at what OperaHole calls 'standing ovation inflation' in classical concert culture. Hosted by Faroese 'multi-talent' Hávard Magnussen (Politiken), the cabaret-style concert work invites audiences to rediscover booing and tomato throwing. The performers serving as guinea pigs include Olesens Musikpris and Avery Fisher Prize-winning cellist Jonathan Swensen, the DKDM Soloist Class ensemble The LuLu Quartet, French hornist Simon Nostrand Berg, and others. They will perform demanding virtuoso works—and if they fail to hold the audience's attention, they risk being slimed, Nickelodeon-style, and booed offstage.

your move reinterprets John Cage's reunion – a piece for chessboard and live electronics where an indeterminate game of chess determines the live mix of six electronics performances. Coloratura soprano, and OperaHole co-artistic director Litha Ashforth has remade the chessboard. In your move audience members make use of the board, transforming audience members into co-creators of the sound scape. Reentry is permitted with a stamp, the bar is open, and the house is mixed seated and standing. Audience may stay however long they like, chat with friends, or play a game of chess.

The anti-koncertseries, conceived by OperaHole Co-Artistic Director and Spieltenor Daniel Rosenberg, comes on the heels of OperaHole's critically acclaimed debut program screen (mad scenes). About the project Rosenberg said, 'Classical concert formats, as they exist today, will not survive the attention era. We demand storytelling, culturally relevant material, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Concert-hall politeness will kill our art form. The anti-koncertseries is an entertaining, impolite answer to boredom in the concert hall—a series that calls every inherited norm into question and demands captivating performances, at the risk of being slimed.'