Splendor: Poppodium in Uilenburg, Amsterdam

Splendor is a concert house in a former public bath on the Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat in central Amsterdam, founded and run by the musicians who play there. You go for music heard at close range in two small halls, from classical to jazz and from Western to Eastern traditions. A group of musicians, composers and artists drew up the plan in 2010 and the doors opened in September 2013. More than 50 professional musicians invested in the building, and each gives at least one concert a year for members in exchange for round-the-clock use of it. Some 1,300 members and 30 volunteers keep it going. Besides concerts there are open rehearsals, masterclasses, workshops and activities for children, and players and audience come in through the same door and meet at the same bar. The bath house went up in the 1920s and carries the marks of the Amsterdam School. Its men's and women's bathing halls are now the Grote Zaal (100 square metres, with a Steinway C) and the Kleine Zaal (60 square metres, with a Yamaha C7). Neither has a fixed stage, so the seating moves with the programme. The basement holds a rehearsal room, a recording studio and a bow workshop, and the attic hosts small concerts. Splendor opens per concert: the doors, bar and cloakroom open 45 minutes before the start.