Astrid Seriese

Julya Lo'ko, Mathilde Santing and Astrid Seriese (from left to right)

Astrid Seriese (born February 26, 1957 in The Hague ) is a Dutch jazz and music theater singer, singing teacher and actress .

She was born the youngest of five children to an Indonesian mother and a Dutch father and grew up in The Hague. She attended the Montessori school and took piano and singing lessons on the side. In 1978 she moved to Amsterdam, where she studied at the Sweelinck Conservatory (which she ended early after three years) and at the same time at the Academy for Cabaret, which she graduated in 1983 (Juliette was in Klaus Mann 's "Mephisto" thesis , where she incidentally sang Brecht / Weill songs). In the same year she met the composer Nedly Elstak (whom she calls her mentor and friend), who hired her for his band "Seven Singers and a Horn" (in which Soesja Citroen and Willem Breuker also played). She also played in Sieto Hoving's Tingel-Tangel Cabaret in 1983 and 1984. In 1985 she was with Julya Lo'Ko and Mathilde Santing in the Dutch team for the Knokke Song Festival, where they won first prize. She toured with both of them in Holland in the 1990s. In the same year he began working with the composer Louis Andriessen in various music theater projects (including recording of “Y Despues” in 1986 based on a poem by Garcia Lorca ). In the same year she formed a quintet with Nedly Elstak, a collaboration that was broken off when the composer died in 1989. In 1987 she made her film debut in "Blonde Dolly".

In 1990 she played the leading role in the BBC TV production “M is Man, Music, Mozart”, directed by Peter Greenaway (music by Louis Andriessen). With the corresponding stage version, she went on tour in Europe from 1992. Her debut CD "Eclipse" was released in 1993, followed by "Secret World" in 1994. On her third CD "Into Temptation" from 1996 she sings songs from Kurt Weill to Tom Waits . In 1997 her composition “Die Frauen von Troja” (Trojaanse Vrouwen) based on the Euripides material premiered in which she also sings. In 1998 she composed the music for the TV series "Die Kinder von Hondsberg" with guitarist Martijn van Agt and drummer Peter Meuris and played Carmen in a TV production of the Bizet Opera. In 1999 her CD "Seriese Live!" Was released. After that, she no longer went on tour with her own shows (after the CDs were released) because it no longer paid off financially. From 2000 to 2004 she was on tour with the musical theater production "She's got game". In 2001 her album "Nuances van Liefde" was released with exclusively her own compositions and with Dutch texts. In 2006 she took part in performances “Charcoal Songs” with the visual artist Mieke de Haan and the bassist Wim Essed .

Web links

• Astrid Seriese
• Astrid Seriese in the Internet Movie Database (English)