Maarten Heijmans & Xander Vrienten
What would it sound like if Maarten van Roozendaal had been born in New Orleans? Maarten Heijmans and Xander Vrienten explore the boundary between Dutch cabaret songs and American folk, blues, and jazz. A theater concert in which loss, longing, and life wisdom are told through music.
In Wachtend op de dood (Waiting for Death), cabaret and the Deep South of America meet. What would Maarten van Roozendaal have sounded like if he had been born in New Orleans? Or Boudewijn de Groot in Nashville? What if Shaffy had washed ashore in Memphis instead of Amsterdam?
Perhaps the worlds of folk, blues, and cabaret are closer than you think. Loss, longing, and the small tragedies of life. Stories about ordinary people and their fate. We more often have a piano; they prefer a guitar. But always armed with sharp lyrics and a healthy dose of irony.
Together with a strong band, Heijmans and Vrienten play new songs and cabaret classics, somewhere between the Jordaan and the Mississippi.
Maarten Heijmans is an actor and singer. In recent years, he has developed into an exceptional interpreter of the cabaret song. He was a long-time member of the ITA acting ensemble and impressed with his role as Ramses Shaffy on television. With his musicality and feel for lyrics and theater, he breathes new life into the repertoire of our greatest songwriters.
Xander Vrienten is a bassist, songwriter, and producer who feels just as at home in rock ‘n’ roll as in pop music. During their collaboration on the hit musical Hadestown, they discovered a shared love for the music of the American South. There, where blues, folk, and jazz converge, they found an unexpected affinity with the Dutch cabaret song. That discovery gave rise to the idea for this program.
