TamTamTools Competition open to all artists and performers!

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Spotlight on Lauren Renee Bigelow

Spotlight on the amazing technique of Michigan-based artist Lauren Bigelow. She combines both representational art and intuitively drawn shapes and lines. Innovation is key for her. She has also found multiple applications for her art as can be seen on her website.

The amazing thing about her art is that we get confronted with the different worlds of this artist. On one side You het confronted with the way she sees the world and how she wants to display the beauty of what she sees. The abstract lines and geometric shapes take You to the world of her feelings. I believe in my humble opinion that the shapes make the realism of her images even stronger. And last but not least, she sell her art and makes it in a highly exportable product.

We believe Lauren Renee Bigelow is one to follow!

Azarias Visual Artist

Developing a strong interest for the arts at a very young age, Azarias started working on realtime visual performances. His work focusses on the line between the sensible and intelligible world questioning objects that challenge the modern opposition between nature and culture. On his website You can find out more on how he creates his amazing art.

Working with plastic, this artist showcases his technique, taking You as a spectator in a world layer after layer. Strong emphasis on computer generated elementen and organic shapes these works keep You discovering new ideas and ideals. We at TamTamTools hope we hear a lot more about this amazing artist very soon!

Debut CD Iris Hendrickx in stores on the 6th Of July

Love has led operatic heroines down many paths often with tragic outcomes. One of their most common fates is abandonment-a fate that in nineteenth-century French opera could befall all kinds of women. It could happen to royal characters such as the Judean princess Salome, left behind by her mother in Massenet’s Hérodiade, as well as to poor spinning girls like Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust. Regardless of their social status, many such abandoned women were given heartbreakingly beautiful laments. In Saint-Saëns’s Henry VIII, a dying Catherine of Aragon nostalgically mourns that she will never see fatherland Spain again. And Lia, the mother of the prodigal son in Debussy’s cantata, grieves about the continued absence of her beloved son. Nineteenth-century female opera goers would easily have empathized with the pain of these characters. Abandonment was a tragic fate: it not only left an emotional void, but also threatened a woman’s identity. After all, her standing in society was often strongly dependent on family ties. This was especially the case in bourgeois and aristocratic circles, where women were expected first and foremost to guard the family’s wealth through marriage and reproduction and to run the household. Not providing your husband with a male heir could lead to divorce, as Catherine of Aragon experienced. Having a child out of wedlock could make women be ostracized from society, as was Marguerite’s fate.

Despite their fates, these women frequently show remarkable strength and magnanimity in the face of adversity. In Carmen, Micaela gathers all her willpower to find Don José in the inhospitable woods, even though he has rejected her, so he can see his dying mother. Gounod’s Juliet disobeys her father’s wish that she marry Count Paris and instead, she drinks the potion that will simulate her death but eventually reunite her with Romeo. Disregarding the paths that family members have set out for them, these women carve out new identities for themselves. Likewise, the women of Paris were also not confined to their domestic roles. Aristocratic and bourgeois women could influence the public sphere through their fashion choices, patronage of the arts, their salons, and so on. The Parisian streets were also walked by women that made a living for themselves as shop girls in the fashionable department stores or running small fashion businesses, and as such were less dependent on relatives in the formation of their identity.

The nineteenth century was also the golden age of the prima donna. Even though heroines generally originated as chimeras of the male creative mind-librettists and composers were usually men-female singers had a considerable influence in shaping their characters. Marie Caroline Miolan-Carvalho, for example, was the reigning star of the Théâtre Lyrique for whom Gounod created the leading female parts in Faust and Roméo et Juliette. Juliette’s lighter, more coquettish “Je veux vivre” was added at her request so she could show off her lighter, agile voice and fondness for playful characters. To the contrary, she did not perform the more dramatic “Amour ranime mon courage” at the premiere for she needed to retrain her voice to tackle the aria’s heavier texture. A subtler influence was exerted by Eduard Lalo’s second wife, the contralto Julie Besnier de Maligny. She inspired the composer’s turn to opera in 1865 when he started writing Fiesque. Singers were often experts at exploiting contemporary print culture to tailor and disseminate images of themselves, and towards the end of the century, they also eagerly exploited the newly emerging technology of recording and photography. As a result, we can still get a glimpse of the voices that first sung these roles, such as Rose Caron, who created Lia in Debussy’s L’enfant prodigue and Yvonne Printemps in Les Chemins de l’amour.

Anouilh’s Léocadia, for which Les Chemins de l’amour was composed, is a play that explicitly invites us to look beyond the surface at the efforts made in constructing the image of a prima donna. Anouilh’s prince after the death of his beloved prima donna lived in a fantasy world consisting solely of his memories of her. Yet this image is not a gratuitous fantasy, but serves as a psychological escape from the ephemerality of the real world. The captivating arias of nineteenth-century French opera can also serve as a moment of escape, yet even when plots took place in the past, these operas responded each in their own way to real-life challenges. As modern life and the role of women and their love in society changed, opera’s female characters and their performers followed suit, populating the Parisian and other European stages with an ever greater diversity of fascinating heroines and paths for them to choose.

http://www.irishendrickx.com

Spotlight on Bieke Geenen

TamTamTools wants to send a big ToiToi to Bieke Geenen for the launch on her book on grandparents. How to deal with Your children, Your childrens children and with the other grandparents? Her book could be one in the “For Dummies” series and we hope that translations will follow soon! The book “Oma’s en Opa’s Zonder Stress” is published with Lannoo. Order this book on This Website.

Kelly Poukens, The Soprano With A Smile

Young Soprano Kelly Poukens is one of the hardest working sopranos in the business. It is rare to meet someone that takes all the advice, puts in the work and smiles all the way through. We want to encourage the market to go and discover this unique singer on her website. And we want to wish her the best of luck in preparation for her IVC-participation. We will keep You updated on her London debut next week! More info on her website

TamTamTools Welcomes Nadege Meden

Nadege Meden is a Young French Soprano who’s career looks to take off in the near future. Singing both Heroïc and Lyric repertoire, Nadege has built a very promising repertoire. Dazzling high notes and an ease for coleratura are assets that make it no surprise that she recieved training by Jennifer Larmore and Annick Massis. We want to help Nadege get discovered by You, future engagements and all references can be found on her website.

The Answers Are Coming Soon!

It could be that You found all the answers in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, but how do people react to this question? TamTamTools would love to share with the world this new project of two film-makers Lars Konings and Stefaan De Rycke!

What is the meaning of life? For TamTamTools it is sharing the extraordinary story of Lars who as a freelance filmmaker has worked with some of the best ensembles and orchestras around the world. Trained as a classical pianist he did almost everything there is to do in the industry which makes him unique as a moviemaker! Devoted to create concepts together with musicians this film is a dream come true for Lars.

Find out more on His Website

Spotlight on Beth Margaret Taylor

Still studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Beth is one to watch and hear. The press have been unanimous about her potential and we are very happy to welcome her on TamTamTools.

Coached by Some of the worlds best teachers, we are amazed with the emotion Beth takes into her interpretations. No surprise that she is being honoured with numerous prizes!

Franck Marco combines two Passions

Have You ever heard of the term ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ the dream of Ludwig van Beethoven? Bringing art together into one experience and thus improving the different forms. Franck Marco takes this to a whole new level. He combines two of his passions, painting and playing the drums. The results are amazing and his art that is always evolving, makes Your heart skip a beat.

Franck Marco has found a way to combine these two forms of art in an inspirational subtle and improvised dialogue.  A unique idea always evolving. He uses brush-sticks and other tools found or invented. So who is Franck Marco, and where does he get his inspiration? Franck Marco has been active on the music scene from the age of 6 onwards. He knows what it takes and has been playing on all major scenes and festivals. His paintings are breathtaking as You can see here.

Bringing a unique performance. He combines the two forms of expession in a singular performance for a colorful silence, a percussive chaos and a reflected accidental destiny.

Find out more about Franck Marco and Drum-Painting here.