Astrid Seriese

Astrid Seriese (Den Haag / The Hague 1957) was educated at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and at the Academie voor Kleinkunst in Amsterdam. Since 1963 she has been working as an actress on stage (Mephisto, 1983) on film (Blonde dolly, 1987) and in cabarets (Tingel tangel, 1983-1984). But more than anything, she has made a career in music. As a singer she started off singing the songs of Bertolt Brecht in 1983, and was a member of Nedly Elstak's Seven singers and a horn. She also formed the Astrid Seriese/Nedly Elstak kwintet with him.

In 1985 she met composer Louis Andriesen, the most influential and renowned Dutch composer of contemporary music. She has been performing his compositions ever since then (Kaalslag, De tijd, Y despues). Their most notable collaboration was M is man music mozart. The music was composed by Andriessen for a BBC television film, directed by Peter Greenaway, starring Astrid Seriese. It was rewritten for theatre group Hollandia in 1990, and performed with orchestra De volharding. In 1985 Astrid Seriese was part of the Dutch entry for the Belgian Knokke songcontest. The Dutch team consisted of three completely different singers: Astrid, Julya Lo'ko and Mathilde Santing. They won the contest, and their collaboration was so successful that they toured the country together (The good thing, 1991).

She played and sang in The good, the bad and the fat, based on Marie Redonnet's book Hotel splendid (1988) as well as in the opera-production Fausto by Harry de Wit, about the life of Fausto Coppi.

In 1992 she made her first solo-album Eclipse, which was highly praised by the Dutch critics and sold extremely well. She made two more albums since then: Secret world (1994) and Into temptation (1996). In 1995 she composed and performed the soundtrack of Veroordeeld (Condemned) in collaboration with percussionist Peter Meuris, a series of five documentary films. The soundtrack album Condemned was released in 1995. Her new solo-album will be released in 1999.

In 1996 she was asked to compose music to a theatre production of Euripides' Women of Troy (Zuidelijk Toneel) in 1996. She wrote songs that were performed by her and other members of the cast.

She has toured the country with her own band ever since 1993: the Eclipse-tour, followed by her Secret world-tour (1994/1995), and the Into temptation-tour (1996/1997).

Singer Astrid Seriese and gitarist Martijn van Agt have composed the music to De Kinderen van de Hondsberg (The Children of Hondsberg): a series of five documentary films in which the lives of several mentally disabled children are reflected. The series was broadcast in 1998 by NCRV-television.