Willem Breuker Kollektief gives Bates College Concert Series performance

The Amsterdam-based Willem Breuker Kollektief, a contemporary European jazz band, will give a Bates College Concert series performance at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 26, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $8 for students and seniors and may be purchased by calling 207-786-6252.

“Rarely has any band, inside or outside jazz, combined instrumental virtuosity and antic irreverence so thoroughly,” said The Boston Globe of the Willem Breuker Kollektief. Equally at home in jazz clubs as in philharmonic halls, the Kollektief, led by saxophonist, clarinettist and composer Willem Breuker, plays a hybrid of music that cuts across traditional music lines.

The Willem Breuker Kollektief’s approach involves combinations of jazz and classical music with many popular genres, from marching bands and circus music to Latin dance steps and music for film and theater. “When we play, I really want the audience to follow what we are doing, to feel that they are part of the band instead of just sitting there watching us. It has to be a very active situation,” Breuker told The Melbourne Herald Sun.

Founded in 1974 and touring extensively throughout the world, the Kollektief consists of 11 improvisational and journeyman musicians. Winner of the prestigious 1988 Bird Award, Breuker composes his music with these artists especially in mind. Whether playing Breuker, Weill, Gershwin, Prokofiev or Ellington, the Kollektief maintains an orchestral precision that, in the words of one critic, “would be the envy of most philharmonics.” In 1998, Breuker received a knighthood in the order of the Lion of the Netherlands.

The next concert in the Bates College Concert Series will be virtuoso clarinettist Richard Stoltzman, who will perform at 8 p.m. Sunday, April 2, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall. Tickets for this concert are $15 for general admission and $12 for students and seniors and may be purchased by calling 207-786-6252.