Nynke Laverman - Live at Festival Women in (E)Motion (2014)

NYNKE LAVERMAN comes from Friesland which lies in the north of Holland. Friesland is a province with its own language. Nynke grew up there and Frisian is her first language. In 2002 she finished her studies at the School of Performing Arts in Amsterdam. On her first album SIELESÂLT (Salt of the soul, 2004) she introduced the ‘Frisian fado’, a combination that was never made before. She translated poems of the famous Dutch poet J.J. Slauerhoff into Frisian and sang them on Portuguese fado music. The melancholy and pureness of it touched a great audience, Nynke performed throughout the whole country and the album turned gold. In april 2005 she sang for queen Beatrix in the tv-show in honor of her silver government-jubilee and she launched the single Dat waarme hert.
From the pubs in Lisbon to the streets of Mexico City. Together with the Frisian poet Albertina Soepboer Nynke went to this raw city to develop her next album DE MAISFROU (The Cornwoman). Albertina wrote the main part of the lyrics. Mexican, Cuban and Argentinian influences entered the music and created a more exuberant album, on which Nynke shows more colors. Again in her native language, in Frisian. On the presentation of the album in May 2006 Nynke received the Piter Jelles-prize, a literary prize for her translations of the poems of Slauerhoff.
De Maisfrou toured for two seasons along the Dutch theatres and ended its tour in June 2007 with DE NACHT VAN DE MAISFROU (The Night of The Cornwoman). This last show was registred on camera and in November 2007 it was released on DVD and CD together with a documentary about De Maisfrou: DIT IS GJIN BEGJIN (This is not a start), that was made by Robertjan Brouwer and which had its premiere at the Northern Filmfestival in Leeuwarden. Earlier that year Nynke released the single Hambre del alma and she acted and sang the titelrole in the theatre-production Cecilia of the Dutch group Orkater. In July 2007 she and her musicians played in front of a completely sold out Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Time for a new adventure. Nynke got on the train to Mongolia and lived for a month with a nomadic family on the steppe in order to get the ideas for her third album, NOMADE. She wanted to stretch up her own boundaries again and set herself the goal to write all the lyrics herself this time. Her stay in this amazingly vast land, with people who continuously are moving on and who have a culture that is full of rituals and traditions, appeared to be fertile ground. In 2008 she took the time for the development of the album. After writing the lyrics, she made most of the songs together with guitarist Ward Veenstra. Western pop influences, Frisian fanfare elements and electronics popped up. She also took some international steps and worked together with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, with Icelandic producer/engineer Valgeir Sigurdsson who mixed a few songs, and with Tim Young (mastering, UK).
In the meantime she participated in short-term projects like 'Fado Blue' with Fernando Lameirinhas and JW Roy, 'In de ban van Bannink' with Holland Symfonia Orchestra and a tribute to Leonard Cohen in Frisian (CD/DVD), on which Nynke sings 'Hallelujah'. She also gave concerts with the Magogo Chamber Orchestra, with the Northern Dutch Orchestra (NNO) and with the Metropole Orchestra, and she performed for the Dutch royal family on Queensday 2008. On the 5th of May 2009 she participated as a soloist to the 5th of May-concert at the Amstel in Amsterdam.
On March the 14th the album NOMADE was released and that same day the concert tour through Holland started in the Muziekgebouw aan het IJ in Amsterdam.