Resonanz

Resonanz is the project where classical and urban meet, makers move across borders and the Limburg-NRW region finds its own cultural sound. No neat coexistence. Real contact, real friction, real new things. From 2026 to 2029, Maaspoort and 11 partners are building something that wasn't there yet: a border region that is its own.

Pillar 1: Talent development

You don't have to go to Amsterdam or Berlin to get somewhere. Resonanz gives young makers aged 16 to 35 space, coaching and stages - here, in the region. Through competitions, master classes and stipends, you grow your way, off the beaten track. More than 1,500 makers get the chance they deserve.

Pillar 2: Co-creation and experimentation

In four cities, we open places where makers come together weekly to experiment, collide and create something new. No presentations of finished ideas, but work in limbo. Singers alongside beatmakers. Choreographers next to opera directors. Out of that awkward encounter grows something you can't plan.

Pillar 3: Major productions

Resonanz culminates in three major productions that rock the region. Urban moves into the theatre. Opera takes to the streets. And in 2028, everything melts together in Urban Opera: a new form born from three years of experimentation. More than 20,000 visitors, from skater to opera fan, come to see what emerges when you exclude nothing.

Leon Thommassen, managing director Maaspoort:

"Cross-pollination creates a new cultural language that connects creators, institutions and audiences."

The creators behind Resonanz

Resonanz exists because five organisations found each other. Not in a meeting room, but in practice, on stages and in rehearsal rooms on both sides of the border. Maaspoort is the engine. Venlo's culture house believes in one thing: it can be done here. This conviction drives Resonanz. Maaspoort opens the doors, connects the parties and ensures that makers get the space they need to really venture out.

D'Haus Junges Schauspiel brings from Düsseldorf a radical belief in theatre as a place for social questions. Young, urgent and without detours. They know how to appeal to a new generation of spectators who are not waiting for the familiar.

House of Movement, founded by Mona Buschhaus in Mönchengladbach, is the home of urban dance in the region. Movement as language, the body as instrument. House of Movement lives in the friction between disciplines and knows exactly how to make that friction productive.

Based in Roermond, Nieuwe Helden Next Level works on theatre that does not overlook young people, but puts them centre stage. They develop makers and audiences, and believe that the new generation of the border region should be able to tell its stories here.

Viva Classic Live takes classical music out of the concert hall and puts young singing talent in the spotlight. Not as custodians of a tradition, but as translators of it. They show that classical is not a dusty archive, but a living form that was always in motion.

Together, they do not form a network. They form an ecosystem.