Along with mouthwatering vocalist Vera Westera, Penguins Too is currently working on their own version of the legendary Pink Floyd album "Wish You Were Here" for concerts to be performed 2023-2024. The three meet regularly in Beek to explore what could be a great rendition of this wonderful music. Rehearsals are in development, keep an eye on our calendar!
BijmaBraam Duo
March 2008 Dutch voice artist Greetje Bijma celebrated 25 years on stage at the Bimhuis, Amsterdam. On that evening she played with fellow Boy Edgar Prize winner Michiel Braam for the first time, and they decided to co-lead a sextet around 2011, also doing occasional duo performances. As of 2016 Greetje and Michiel form a regular duo, improvising freely and based on the Japanese epigrams by Lucebert and other poems, as well as playing plain songs, including Benjamin Britten's "The Last Rose Of Summer", Abbey Lincoln's "Caged Bird", "Throw It Away" and "Bird Alone" and several jazz standards such as "Stormy Weather".
In their music both musicians's idiosyncratisies are profoundly present and in dialog with each other. Bijma has a strong reputation as an improvising vocalist. With her souple voice and theatrical qualities, she is well known as an intriguing artist, her popularity reaching far beyond the jazz circuit. Braam comes from another world and has developed his own style of piano playing, composing and initiating musical projects based on an unbridled basis of jazz music in many forms, adding all kinds of personal elements to that without restraint.
This duo is a truly unique mix of those two voices, resulting in scrumptious and intriguing concerts.
Musicians
Greetje Bijma voice, Michiel Braam piano