Welcome to the Concertgebouw Orchestra's free open-air concert! Opening Night 2025 celebrates the start of the new concert season in Amsterdam’s Sloterpark. The orchestra will work closely with local entrepreneurs to make it a great music festival for everyone. Will you come too? You don't need a ticket!

Opening Night 2025

For the fifth time, Opening Night will be held in a special location in Amsterdam. Having already been hosted at the Dam, Westerpark, NDSM Wharf and Nelson Mandela Park, this time you will find the free concert on the west bank of the Sloterplas in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, the district where the ConcertGebouw recently started working together with Theater Meervaart.

This way, Opening Night has been travelling through Amsterdam as it celebrates its 750th anniversary. The concert starts at 8pm, and there is a vibrant support programme by young talent and local musicians from 6.45pm.

Event details

• Date: Friday, September 12, 2025
• Start of support programme: 6.45pm
• Start of concert: 8.15pm
• End of concert: 10pm
• Location: Sloterpark 

The concert

At 8.15pm, Stéphane Denève will conduct the Concertgebouw Orchestra in a colourful programme full of dances from all over the world, from the swirling sounds of Bernstein and Ravel to Grieg’s enchanting melodies. Also on the bill is a dazzling guest performance by ISH Dance Collective to music by Tchaikovsky and Falla, and featuring musical fireworks by Dvořák, Mussorgsky and two composers of our time: Karmit Fadael and Claude Chalhoub.

Support programme featuring young and local talent

Between 6.45pm and 7.30pm, Concertgebouw Orchestra trombonist Nico Schippers will conduct the Jonge Strijkers en Blazers Nederland (Young String and Wind Players of the Netherlands) and the reART World Music Choir & Ensemble. They will collectively play works by Selim Doğru, MAias Alyamani and other composers, as well as klezmer and traditional Arabic, Syrian, and Turkish music. This concert will feature the young singer Ayşe Devrim Özalp, and violin soloists Emma Breedveld and Naomi Bach.

To celebrate the 750th anniversary of the city of Amsterdam, Selim Doğru composed a new work, the Nieuw-West Rhapsody, which will be performed together with the audience as part of the "Amsterdam Klinkt!" Festival.

The full programme

1. Leonard Bernstein; Candide Overture
2. Antonín Dvořák; Allegro con fuoco (fourth movement) from Symphony No. 9, "From the New World"
3. Edvard Grieg; from Peer Gynt Suite nr. 1, op. 46
4. Karmit Fadael; Nachtgezang
5. Claude Chalhoub; Scherzo
6. Pyotr Tchaikovsky; Arabian Dance (Coffee) from The Nutcracker
7. Manuel de Falla; Ritual Fire Dance from El amor brujo
8. Maurice Ravel; La valse
9. Modest Musorgsky (arr. Maurice Ravel); Great Gate of Kyiv from Pictures at an Exhibition

• Stéphane Denève; conductor
• ISH Dance Collective; dance

Getting there

The stage is located near the hill and the artwork Groot Landschap in Sloterpark. It is advised that everyone come by bike or public transport. The nearest tram/bus stop is Meer en Vaart, where trams 1, 17 and 27 and buses 61, 63, 69 and 192 stop.

Radio and television

The concert will be broadcast live on Dutch radio by AVROTROS via NPO Klassiek, and can be viewed on Dutch television on Saturday, 13 September, from 10.45 pm on NPO 2.

For further information, visit the Concertgebow Orchestra website. You don't need to purchase tickets, just turn up on the night. 

The opening Night of the Concertgebouw Orchestra is made possible by the support of Global Partners ING, Unilever and Booking.com, whose shared aim is to make classical music accessible to as wide an audience as possible.

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra was founded in 1888. Its distinctive sound has made it one of the world’s leading orchestras.  The orchestra is famous for its renditions of works by Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Anton Bruckner, and for its long-standing concert traditions such as the St Matthew Passion in the week before Easter and the Christmas Matinee. It has always worked closely with contemporary composers.

The Concertgebouw Orchestra has had just seven chief conductors to date. The eighth was announced on 10 June 2022: Klaus Mäkelä joined as artistic partner in the 2022-23 season and will become chief conductor in 2027. The coming season sees five extraordinary programmes with Klaus Mäkelä at the helm.