Location TivoliVredenburg

Music Center Vredenburg used to be here right next to and connected to shopping mall Hoog Catharijne, along the 11-lane highway, the Catharijnebaan. A part of the Stadsbuitengracht, the outer historic canal of the city centre had been filled in asphalt in the seventies to create the Catharijnebaan for the new and fast-growing car mobility in that period. Now the water has been restored and the music centre has been partly demolished, the old main hall luckily has been preserved and renovated. And then 4 new concert halls were built. These 4 halls are suspended in a steel construction with dampers, hanging in between two elevator shafts, like a kind of hammock between two trees; instead of stacked against each other and on top of each other like the floors and rooms in normal buildings. This special construction ensures that virtually no sound vibrations are exchanged between the rooms. This way, several concerts and parties can be organized at the same time.

The building is no longer connected to the renovated Hoog Catharijne. From the waterfront you can easily walk to the Vredenburg Square through the alley in between TivoliVredenburg and Hoog Catharijne. If you then turn back around on Vredenburg Square to face TivoliVredenburg again and you look slightly up at the low corner of the old main hall, you will see the 'Schele Maagd' or translated the Squinting Virgin' smiling back at you. This statue is an Angel from a niche of the old Art Nouveau building of the former life insurance company De Utrecht, which stood next to the location Smakkelaarsveld, near Utrecht Central Station.