Creation Songs

Kamerkoor JIP with Ilona Danho

📅 11 April 2026
🕗 20:15
📍 Pieterskerk, Utrecht

Creation Songs is a concert programme by Kamerkoor JIP that seeks artistic and spiritual renewal by bringing ancient Middle Eastern creation hymns into dialogue with a contemporary Western choral sound.

At the heart of the programme is Ilona Danho, a Syrian-Swedish soprano and specialist in Syriac sacred music. Her repertoire includes ancient hymns such as Hailawothe Shmayone (“Heavenly Powers”), Daweed Ethnabi (“Prophet David”), and Oshano (“Palm Sunday”), alongside Assyrian folk songs including Num Habib (“My Beloved Sleeps”), Kefneth Kmo Zabnin (“Love Through Time”), and Nishra Tkhume (“The Eagle of the Highlands”). Themes of light, renewal, freedom, courage, and identity run through the programme.

As a co-initiator of Creation Songs, Ilona Danho brings a unique vocal sensitivity characterised by Eastern ornamentation, clarity, and emotional intensity. Together with Kamerkoor JIP, these hymns and related songs are newly arranged, allowing Eastern modal traditions and Western polyphony to meet. The result is a sound world in which ancient sacred poetry resonates within a contemporary choral context.

Kamerkoor JIP, founded by brothers Imre and Jonathan Ploeg, is known for its thematic programming and innovative approaches to choral music. The ensemble cultivates an artistic environment in which musical precision, inner development, and community are deeply connected. In Creation Songs, JIP brings choral refinement and pedagogical depth, while Ilona Danho contributes vocal heritage and modal knowledge, creating a shared musical meditation on creation as an ongoing process of renewal and awareness.

The concert will be preceded by a short spoken introduction, and translated texts will be provided to help audiences follow the multilingual hymns.