Musicians - Ilse Huizinga

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	Musicians - Ilse Huizinga

Ilse Huizinga (October 15, 1966) is a Dutch singer, considered one of the most distinguished of a new generation of jazz singers. From the very beginning of her career, media and audiences have spoken highly of her interpretations of the Great American Songbook. Numerous articles, interviews and appearances on radio and television followed and connected her to a diverse and broad audience. She performs in many countries in Europe.

History

Ilse Huizinga was born in Beverwijk, The Netherlands in October 1966 and grew up in Nijmegen. It was an old piano given to her family at the age of six, which first drew Ilse to music. Subsequently she fell in love with the allure of old Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday and Abbey Lincoln albums, her fascination further caught when she watched Betty Carter sing at the North Sea Jazz Festival. At the age of 17, she took her first singing lessons. She later studied with John de Mol Senior and Gertjan Arentsen in Amsterdam.

She regularly took part in open mike nights at the notorious jazz club Casablanca, in the heart of Amsterdam's Red Light District. However, music did not feature heavily on her career ladder until she spent a year in Australia and finished a degree in Public Administration at the University of Amsterdam. Ilse subsequently studied at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Sylvi Lane, including master classes by Dianne Reeves and Margriet Eshuis. She has toured in Spain, Turkey, Switzerland and France, and regularly performs in the United Kingdom. A winner of the Schiedam Jazz Award, she has represented The Netherlands at the international jazz festival in Vienne, France.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines selected Ilse's debut album Out Of A Dream for its in-flight entertainment programme. The Dutch Jazz Archive called it a revelation. On Voices Within she skilfully recorded her own voice five times, resulting according to critics "some of the best close harmony for decades". Her third album The Sweetest Sounds was voted Album of the Week on Dutch radio and can regularly be heard on specialist jazz radio stations across Europe. Following an informal debut at Ronnie Scott's, she thrilled audiences at Amsterdam's world-famous Concertgebouw. She has also performed for inmates at Amsterdam's Bijlmerbajes prison.

In 2001 Ilse Huizinga recorded an album exclusively devoted to the songs of Richard Rodgers, entitled The Sweetest Sounds. It was met with instant acclaim by the critics and nominated for Holland's oldest and most prestigious music award, The Edison Award.

There are several albums featuring selections of jazz standards on Daybreak Records that are highly regarded by critics, Voices Within, shows a multi-vocal side to Ilse's talent, The Sweetest Sounds is an acclaimed 2001 highlight, whilst The Intimate Sessions - Volume 1 was recorded in 2006 specifically to meet demand in the Japanese market. Easy to Idolize (2003) and Beyond Broadway (2005) find Ilse on form in selections of the Great American Songbook, accompanied by a stellar lineup of European jazz musicians.

Voice

Her voice is described as "warm and sexy", ""clear and pitch-perfect"", "a voice of which other singers only dream; full, clear and sensitive." (Nouveau). Her classical training shines through in genuine coloratura, whereby "she manages to fit entire octaves into a single syllable - great that the poignant lyrics meanwhile never suffer." (De Volkskrant) In interviews, Huizinga has said that the death of her father and her traumatic pregnancy have deeply affected her singing. "I used to be totally focused on technique. Now I'm no longer such a perfectionist, no longer focused on pretty singing. Emotions and the deeper meaning behind the lyrics have become much more important to me."

:"Huizinga has a powerful, mature - and above all also warm and beautiful - voice which is superbly versatile. She bends and stretches it to her liking. A tender ballad or an upbeat song; either she shows to their full advantage. Fearlessly, she encounters her vocal boundaries. Ilse combines guts with innovation, dances right on key across half interval runs and presents the lyrics with such integrity, such conviction that she has already captured the listener's ear. In this self assurance great singers distinguish themselves from the endless numbers of so-called great talents." - (Jan Rensen, De Gooi- en Eemlander)

Collaborations with other jazz artists

Ilse's most celebrated collaboration is with her husband, the pianist, composer and arranger Erik van der Luijt. Together they made eight albums to date and continue to perform live around the globe.

Other notable collaborations include double bass player Sven Schuster, percussionist Frits Landesbergen en legendary double bass player Ruud Jacobs, who is said to have been coaxed out of retirement for Huizinga's 1999 album Voices Within. It was Jacobs who suggested dubbing Huizinga's voice five times to create a close harmony sound on this album.

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