I followed the advice of the concert description on the meetup site by arriving an hour early since, although the concert was free, there were a limited number of seats available. I arrived about five minutes before the doors were shut and dozens of people were left gazing at the jam packed lobby, hoping that they would be allowed in after the early arrivals were seated and there was a chance for the staff to see if there were more seats available.
The two members of the meetup group I'd found in the densely packed lobby (Delia from Atlanta, and Mandana from Iran) found seats slightly behind and to the right of the performance area. I saw that there were about 40 male singers in a choral group, a small chamber orchestra including a bass, two cellos, a handful of violins and violas, an oboe and a flute, and a piano.
Upon entering, we were given program booklets that provided the titles and sequences of the songs, as well as the points at which the the priest (or equivalent title - I'm not sure what denomination the service was) would speak. It also gave lyrics under songs that were described as Koor en samenzang, which indicated that the song was a singalong - that the audience was encouraged to sing along with the choir. After the first sing along, which was a lot of fun, a woman entered the hall from the staircase to my left and descended the steps while singing Halleluja loud enough so that the entire concert hall could hear.
The concert and service lasted for about two hours. It was entirely in Dutch, except for a one or two sentence welcome in English. My increased Dutch comprehension after the two week intense Dutch course I took in November helped my understand many of the words in the service, but I missed the point for most of it. I was able to sing the words correctly (in pronunciation, if not in pitch), though, so the classes did have some benefit here.
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