Laar en Berg is very well known for the attention it gives to music. The two "voorspeel-avonden" in the year are very big deals (the first, Klassiek en Unplugged, took place two weeks ago and I enjoyed it very much; the second, 80 db, takes place in April and is a rock-and-pop superhyped-giga-marathon). That said, I am not wild about my music room (although admittedly it doesn't look so bad from these photos).
First thing, the muzieklokaal is in my opinion too isolated from most of the school. Although that means you can make a lot of noise without people hearing it, nevertheless I believe that the place a classroom is says something about the priority the school places on the subject. Also, I am from New York City and I live in Amsterdam--I like to feel like I am in the middle of the action, and not as the crazy relative stuck in the basement. You have to walk out of the main building where the classrooms are, and go through a sort of "winter garden" to get to the muzieklokaal. It is right next to the gym and the boys' locker room, which manifests itself during the day in a steady stream of the aroma of deoderant. To reach the muzieklokaal you then ascend a flight of stairs (see photo). What you see is just about the entire room--the speel- en -les-ruimtes are together and the ceiling is extremely low. The room is essentially the size of a normal classoom, not twice as large as should be the case with a muzieklokaal. The size of the room has many consequences for teaching: lack of mental and creative space, claustrophobic, "echo-chamber" effects, etc. In addition, whereas in Hilversum the sound has been deadened by carpeting on the wall, here the room is so small that if I play just mf I can drown out a group of 30.
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