A concert the guests wrote themselves

The brief

A castle looking for its audience.

Some venues carry their own music. Villa Madonna, an art-nouveau castle on the Kruisberg hill in Ronse, is one of them: stained glass, carved wood, a century of history restored with so much care that the building itself seems to perform. Joost and Caroline, its owners, wanted an event that would put their castle in the spotlight it deserved, and they knew a brochure could never do that. A year earlier they had already brought music into the halls. This time, they dreamed of something more. Something fairylike, was the word they used.

The concept

Thirty paintings. The guests picked the score.

A concert shaped by the guests themselves. Before a single note is played, every visitor strolls past thirty paintings and chooses their favourites, and the most chosen works become the setlist of the evening: familiar melodies to open, then improvisations on soundscapes composed that very afternoon, inspired by the painting hanging behind the performers. It also happened to be the perfect stage for Sirelia, our new act of harp, electronics and cinematic vocals, which we were finishing at the exact moment the invitation from the castle arrived. Some meetings are simply meant to be.

Singer in a red gown at the microphone and a harpist, in a hall with green stained-glass windows at Villa Madonna

Watch the film

What we built

Concretely.

Sirelia (out of the box concert) with: harp by Fran Vancoillie, voice by Liza Dedapper, electronics by Kobe Baeyens
Long red gowns, chosen to glow against the restored wood and art-nouveau lines
Aurelia (out of the box character) at the castle door as the welcoming character, in her sage dress with flowers and gold accents, guiding guests to the paintings
Three intimate concerts across one day, each with its own setlist and its own audience, which made every performance a premiere
A Volvo shuttling every guest from the parking lot to the entrance, so the experience began before anyone had even touched a doorknob
Captured by Yellowfish Productions, directed as part of the concept

The moment

What happened in the room.

Your dedicated Villa Madonna taxi door closes behind you, and Aurelia's smile invites you into a hall where thirty paintings wait to be chosen. You take your time, because choosing already feels like part of the concert. Once seated in the main hall, the harp opens with something familiar, then leans into a melody that has existed for less than an hour and somehow sounds centuries old, composed for the painting glowing behind the performers. Sunlight streams through the stained glass, and the audience feels part of the concert, because their own choices shaped it. Stepping into a real-life fairytale, as one guest described it afterwards. At the reception, the performers mingle with the audience, turning the whole evening into a conversation about music, and about connection.

FormatSirelia · three intimate concerts

CastVoice, harp and electronics, plus Aurelia

CaptureYellowfish Productions

What the client said

“From the very first conversation, I felt the passion and the drive to create something extraordinary. Everything was prepared down to the smallest detail, and the music brought a warm, intimate atmosphere that fit our location perfectly. Our guests were genuinely enthusiastic.”
Joost Van Goethem · Owner · Villa Madonna

The day