Identity

Mission, vision, and objectives

The Concertzender; a refuge for music and music lovers.
Thirty-nine years ago a group of music lovers shared a strongly felt need to create a sanctuary where everything revolves around music, where music and musicians have the final word, and music in (almost) all its facets can be listened to as it is meant to be, where no boundaries are drawn between genres and styles, and almost every music lover gets their money’s worth, and where no concessions have to be made to non-musical secondary goals. This led to the establishment of a radio station called the Concertzender at the end of 1982, because the medium radio was the best option for realizing such goals.

Still necessary
This feeling of necessity was, if possible, even stronger at the Concertzender in 2021. The NPO (the Dutch broadcasting organization) was forced to make cutbacks, and both public broadcasters and commercial stations can only survive if they listen to the voice of the majority. The inevitable result is that special, unprecedented, vulnerable, disruptive, or surprising music is still only rarely to be found on these stations and some aspects of the Dutch performing and musical arts remains unheard on the radio.

Mouthpiece for special music
The Concertzender wants to be and remain the mouthpiece for this music, as a live radio station, producer of concert recordings, and on-demand platform for Dutch music archives. The Concertzender broadcasts 24/7 via cable, internet and app, and on-demand via 22 themed channels, with a program range from early music to contemporary ‘classical’ music, world music, jazz, opera, pop and all possible mixes of these styles, always played by top-level musicians and mostly broadcast in their entirety.

As a recording producer the Concertzender adds some 200 concerts recordings annually to is now extensive archive of more than 4,500 recordings, mainly of Dutch musicians, ensembles and orchestras. Those 200 recordings (of which about 80 recorded in Utrecht) are made by more than 80 different ensembles and a large number of individual musicians, during regular concerts and festivals at over 50 different locations in Utrecht and the rest of the Netherlands.

For music lovers, by music lovers
We are here for music lovers for whom music is more than a tasteful sound decor and who are not afraid of adventure. The listener is presented a wide range of music every day, under the motto “recognize and explore”, from known to unknown, and in all shapes and sizes.

We can do this thanks to 170 unpaid professionals and volunteers who work for the Concertzender, including over 100 producers, all passionate connoisseurs of music in all possible genres, who can recognize new musical developments and emerging talent.

The Concertzender offers a limitless music stage, for music lovers and by music lovers

Download here our latest annual report