Weekly English-language tours Sundays at 2 p.m.

The Hermitage Amsterdam offers weekly English-language tours, which are free for visitors with a valid ticket to the exhibition. All tours are led by professional guides from the Hermitage, with a maximum of 15 participants per tour. You can sign up at the information desk on the day of the tour.

Wednesday 4 January, at 5 pm and again at 7 pm, in the exhibition area

Musical tour (repeat performance)

The J.O.N.G.ensemble devised a musical tour inspired by the Flemish masters. The result is an ode to Baroque music and to ‘Rubenesque’ women.

Wednesday 25 January, 8 pm, church hall

Amsterdam Sinfonietta & Bach, Artistic Director and Leader Candida Thompson

Soloists from Amsterdam Sinfonietta will perform a varied programme of chamber music composed by the German genius Johann Sebastian Bach. With Candida Thompson (violin), Ingrid van Dingstee (violin), Nicoline van Santen (violin), Daniel Bard (viola), Kaori Yamagami (cello), Rick Stotijn (double bass) and Alessandro Sbrizzi (harpsichord). A surcharge of € 7.50 is payable for this concert. Please register at www.hermitage.nl/activiteiten. Once you have registered, you can buy your tickets on the day of the concert at the desk of the Hermitage Amsterdam.

Sunday 29 January, 2 pm, church hall

Caucasica

The fascination with the music of Georgia, Armenia and Russia is a common theme in Caucasica’s repertoire. Caucasica is the only choir in the Netherlands that performs songs and melodies in the ancient tradition of Georgian polyphony, Armenian delicacy and Russian melancholy. Caucasica is a mixed choir from Groningen. From the beginning in 1998 it has been conducted by Yuri Makarov.

Wednesday 1 February, 8 pm, church hall

Baroque dance (workshop)

In the age of the great Flemish masters, dance played an important part in the everyday lives of the nobles and wealthy burghers who commissioned paintings from them. Participants in this special workshop by Dorothée Wortelboer will be given an opportunity to immerse themselves briefly in that world. They will learn two simple seventeenth-century dances and taste the atmosphere of a Baroque Ball while enjoying a historical beverage. With live music by lute player Willem Mook.

Sunday 5 February, 2 pm, church hall

Babylon

Babylon is an Amsterdam chamber choir. The sixteen-strong choir sings both a capella and accompanied at the piano by the conductor, pianist and composer Frederic Voorn. Its repertoire ranges from sixteenth- to twentieth-century work. At Hermitage Amsterdam, the choir will sing a varied programme of religious and secular music.

Saturday 18 February, 2 pm, auditorium

Rubens metamorphoses

Rubens metamorphoses is a sequence of scenes presented at a steady pace, such that each is suggested by the preceding image and presages the following one. At the heart of the display is the interaction between the ‘actors’ – gestures, looks and actions that generate a smooth transition between the fragments. The scenes are thus constantly evolving and undergoing transformation: religious paintings acquire mythological significance, mythological images metamorphose into portraits, and portraits in turn evoke religious spectacle. Film by Ingrid von Wantoch Rekowski, 42 minutes, 2004 Antwerp.

Wednesday 22 February, 8 pm, church hall

Mini / maxi organ

Oleg Lysenko (bayan / classic accordion) and Henk Verhoef (organ) will play their air instruments separately. Instruments of the same family but different eras merge in this performance, in which the dominant type of music is baroque.

Sunday 26 February, 2 pm, church hall

North Holland Byzantine Male Choir, Liturgical concert

The North Holland Byzantine Male Choir has once again been invited to give a Sunday concert. It will present its latest repertoire, conducted by Sergé Latychev.

Wednesday 29 February, 8 pm, Café-restaurant Neva

Neva dancetaria Jazz

To bring the winter season – and the Rubens season – to a close, the Hermitage Amsterdam and café/restaurant Neva is going to town. The attractions will include jazz (with Reinier Baas on guitar and Sean Fasciani on bass) and a real guinea-pig race! It’s a perfect opportunity to wine and dine, to dance, and to try your luck at winning the ultimate comic-book of 2012: Suske and Wiske and Rubens’s Rookie.