Brutally Minimalistic

Brutally Minimalistic is a cultural event designed as an antidote to consumerism and Black Friday, hosted at De Thomas in Zuidas, renowned for its Brutalist architecture. Featuring minimal music by a piano duo and inspiring talks, the event offers full immersion in space, sound, and thought.

This concert provides a moment of reflection on our daily lives before the rush of festive holidays like Thanksgiving, Sinterklaas, and Christmas. By presenting minimal music as a conceptual counterbalance to consumerism, the program encourages reflection amidst today's fast-paced consumer culture, countering the impulsive purchases and overconsumption sparked by events like Black Friday. (See other counter-initiatives such as 'Green Friday')

John Adams:

Ryuichi Sakamoto: 1919,

Arvo Pärt: Hymn to a Great City,

(The links of music fragments come from another concert or recording. Visitors will hear a different performance and instrumentation in the concert)

• Consumerism;
• Re-;
• Nature

(speech will be in English)

Prof. mr. dr. Tineke Lambooy | Nyenrode Business Universiteit

More speakers to be announced soon

Herman Lai, piano

, piano

, violin

• van Lai Production
• Nyenrode Alumni Circle for Sustainability
• Herman Lai producer
• Tamara Veldboer co-lead
• Tzu-Wei (Velika) Hung event manager
• I-Chun Chou visual designer

• Date: 30 October 2024
• Time: Doors open at 18:00 for drinks and bites, with the performance and talk starting at 19:15.
• Location: De Thomas
• Address: Prinses Irenestraat 36, Amsterdam (next to Amsterdam Zuid Station, Beethovenstraat, and WTC)
• Admission: 20,00€ regular ticket / 12,50€ student

Your ticket includes your first drink and bites. Transaction fees are already included in the ticket price.

To make the event more accessible to everyone, we have kept ticket prices affordable. Inviting your family, friends, or colleagues to join you would be the biggest support to us.

The building of De Thomas was designed by architect Karel Sijmons and is considered to be the most important Protestant church building after the Second World War. The brutalist interior of the church hall is one of the 100 most beautiful church interiors in the Netherlands. Sijmons designed everything in the church hall itself, including the chairs. And the Thomaskerk has its own indoor theatre: unique for Dutch churches.

Host or Publisher Herman Lai