Oh, and I didn’t update you for a while on the touring, so just to give you an idea: I can still be regularly found at the Bimhuis with the Konrad Koselleck Big Band (our steady gig there); we’ve been really busy touring Homme Fatale (Ratzke) around the world (taking it from Amsterdam to Berlin, Hamburg, New York and many more); also the late-nights in Utrecht have continued, this time as a semi-live tv-show (I know, very very cool) and there’s been other stuff there too. Also important is that 2018 is going to be very exciting, but I’ll tell you more about that later. Stay tuned for more international touring and festival announcements..
Tag: Berlin
It’s been a busy summer! Three whole months we’ve been rehearsing and editing the new Sven Ratzke show STARMAN, with the music of David Bowie. Of course we renewed all the tunes (beautiful arrangements by Charly Zastrau), but to be shure it would be a terrific show we spent a lot of time in making everything perfect.
So now there’s a cd and a tour! The cd is available at www.bol.com and in the web shop of Ratzke. There you’ll find the tourlist too, and you’ll find that it takes us not only top to bottom through Holland, but also to Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna, and to the biggest theatre festival of Australia and we’ll play New York for 10 days! So if you want to check us out, have a look at the list and find you’re nearest stage to see us perform. The reviews until now have been blowing us away..
Last time we played Sven Ratzke’s and Claron McFadden’s Groschenblues is a while ago at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Luckily the great music of Kurt Weill and lyrics of Bertolt Brecht are requested on several stages once in a while, and so we could play the piece this week in Berlin, at the Tipi am Kanzlerambt. We had a great time at this beautiful venue – and the audience loved it! Charly Zastrau did a great job arranging all the pieces, Sven is an incredible performer and Claron’s magical voice makes the songs sound even better. Check out the (German) review here if you want to know more..
In may this year I recorded a new album with Ellen ten Damme, called ‘Berlin’. It was recorded live at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and it features a great band with horns and strings. The tracklist has some old and some new material on it, all fabulously sung by Ellen.
In the meantime the album was mixed and mastered and is now ready to be released, which will be done september 26th. BUT: you can pre-order the cd now already!! Just go to this website, click on the album and order it there. There’s a tracklist available too.
And for those interested, the band was Robin Berlijn, Aram Kersbergen, Thijs Cuppen and me, ten string-players of Amsterdam Sinfonietta, and the hornsection: Tini Thomsen, Werner Jansen, Robbert Scherpenisse, Jan Harshagen and Matthias Konrad.
A very special project is taking place this week. Ellen ten Damme wanted to record a cd with German repertoire for a long time, and decided to do that in a very special way. She put together her ‘Magpie-Orchestra’, which is her band, with a horn section and a group of strings added, and she’s going to record her cd live at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. We’ve been rehearsing for a while now, and the arrangements (mainly by Konrad Koselleck and Rob Horsting) are starting to sound really good! It is so nice to hear all the different sounds and sound-combinations in an orchestra like this, along with the varied repertoire (Kurt Weil, Marlène Dietrich, Nina Hagen, Rihanna) – I think it’s gonna be a great night and a very special cd..
Friday May 9th at the Concertgebouw – Amsterdam: