Our mission

At Museum Geelvinck, our mission is to allow others to experience the 18^th and 19^th centuries by creating a relationship between the historical context of this period and 21^st century themes. While this can cover topics from slavery to food heritage, we particularly focus on protecting our collective sound heritage, in orchestrating concerts, festivals and exhibitions around our early piano collection. In doing so, we aim to bring the sounds and instruments of the past into the 21st Century. We look after over 200 historic pianos, the largest of its kind in the Netherlands, and this includes the renowned Sweelinck Collection.

Throughout the year we have exhibitions on a wide range of topics relating to the historical context of the 18th and 19th centuries, onto which we situate our historic instruments to build a full picture of their, and our, shared history. Musically, we run an annual festival, workshops to train future restoration apprentices, academic musical competitions, symposiums and regular concert series, such as this one!

Beethoven and the Romantic

Forming the first concert series of the New Year, Beethoven & the Romantic is a continuation of our recent Geelvinck Early Piano Festival theme, Beethoven: his sphere and his influence, which celebrates Beethoven 250 years from his birth.

In this concert series we will explore the social mood developing during Beethoven’s lifetime, and in particular, the cultural movement towards romanticism in the 19th Century. To do this, we of course need music! We will hear pieces on pianos from this period of social and cultural change to take you back in time and experience our sound heritage.