BIOGRAPHY
[Not for publication purposes; please apply to Sorek Artists Management for a short version of this biography]
Dutch tenor Marcel Beekman [1969] is much in demand as a
soloist for baroque and classical repertoire as for contemporary concert and
operatic works. He has appeared with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the
Orchestra of the 18th Century, Les Arts Florissants, Musica Antiqua Köln, the
Academy of Ancient Music, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Gulbenkian Lisbon, the
ASKO | Schönberg and all major orchestras in the Netherlands under such
conductors as William Christie, Iván Fischer, Frans Brüggen, Reinbert de
Leeuw, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Ed Spanjaard, Jos van Veldhoven, Jan Willem de
Vriend, Richard Egarr, Yakov Kreizberg, Claus Peter Flor, Steven Sloane and
Gennady Rhozdestvensky. Marcel Beekman has created new works by composers Calliope Tsoupaki, Martijn Padding, Jeff Hamburg, Myriam Marbe, António Chagas
Rosa, Elmer Schönberger, Roderik de Man, Joost Kleppe and Matthias Kadar.
His
performance in the world premiere of Calliope Tsoupaki’s St. Luke Passion was
accounted one of the highlights of the 2008 Holland Festival; the live
recording of this piece was recently released on CD. In the 2009 edition of
this important Amsterdam cultural festival, Marcel sang the Netherlands premiere
of In der Matratzengruft – Mauricio Kagel’s last and unfinished composition
for tenor and chamber orchestra. A highly appreciated concert with Greek love
songs for tenor and wind instruments by Tsoupaki brought Beekman’s name in
the headlines of the national press in June 2010. Marcel Beekman is mostly
known for his interpretation of German baroque compositions [his recording
for Deutsche Grammophon/Universal of the evangelist in a Dutch translation of
Bach’s St. Matthew Passion brought him a Golden Award], but gained
recognition for his devotion to the avant-garde as well. He performs in the
great international concert venues [Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Barbican London,
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Salle Gaveau and Salle Pleyel Paris, Carnegie
Hall New York, Walt Disney Concert Hall Los Angeles, Auditorium Parco della Musica Luciano Berio Roma, Palau Música Catalana Barcelona, Philharmonie Berlin,
Palais des Beaux Arts Bruxelles, Madrid, Saint-Petersburg, Damascus, Tokyo]
and in festivals such as the Holland Festival, Utrecht Ancient Music
Festival, Nederlandse Muziekdagen, Bregenzer Festspiele, Prague Festival,
Stockholm Early Music Festival, BEMUS Belgrade, Chopin Festival Warsaw,
Jornadas de Música Contemporânea de Lisboa, Festival d’Ambronay, Flanders
Festival, Fadjr Festival Tehran, Les Folles Journées and Festival de La
Chaise-Dieu. A considerable list of CD-, radio and TV-recordings, bears
witness to his versatility.
Marcel Beekman’s operatic repertoire includes the
roles of Berenice in L’Ipermestra [Cavalli], Valère/Damon/Don Carlos in
Les
Indes Galantes [Rameau], Casella in La Commedia [Louis Andriessen], Arthur
Rimbaud in Nuit de l’enfer [Roderik de Man], the title role of Willem Breuker’s
Jonah the Naysayer], 2. Jude in Salome [Strauss], Primo Sacerdote in
Il Prigioniero [Dallapiccola], Laki Topalovic in the Serbian contemporary
chamber opera Maratonci [Isidora Zebeljan], Lope in Don Chisciotte in Sierra
Morena [Conti] and Voedster [Nurse] in the 1605 first Dutch opera Granida
[P.C. Hooft]. He was recently much acclaimed for his performance of Arnalta
in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea at Theater an der Wien [Vienna],
directed by Robert Carsen. Other directors with whom Beekman worked are Peter
Stein, Peter Konwitschny, Hal Hartley, Wim Trompert and Nicola Raab. Marcel’s 2010/11 schedule includes appearances with De Nederlandse Opera
Amsterdam [Legende by Dutch composer Peter-Jan Wagemans], the Saito Kinen
Festival in Matsumoto, Japan [Salome conducted by Omer Meir Wellber in a
production of the Chicago Lyric Opera directed by Francesca Zambello], a solo
recital with works by Charpentier in the 2010 Utrecht Ancient Music Festival,
the WDR Orchestra Cologne [Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria by Monteverdi
in Hans Werner Henze’s orchestration], NPS Matinee Amsterdam [Les Noces
by Stravinsky, conducted by John Adams] and the Salzburg Easter Festival [Salome
conducted by Sir Simon Rattle].
Marcel Beekman is represented by SOREK ARTISTS MANAGEMENT