The Tivoli Sessions #1 Nu Art Orchestra & Marike van Dijk

• 1 Landed 08:23
• 2 7ths 05:41
• 3 Fan-Fan-Fa-Re (to Reinbert de Leeuw) 08:43
• 4 Pronkvogel (to Rob Pronk) 08:53
• 5 Still Another Day 06:54
• 6 On Becoming (to Peter Guidi) 06:06
• 7 Island Time 08:04
• 8 Balancing Act 06:00
• Total Runtime 58:44

Info for The Tivoli Sessions #1

In the world of Nu Art Orchestra, big band music takes an adventurous trip. This is not your average big band, but an ensemble that hits the road with brand new, original music written by band members. Nu Art Orchestra was initiated by saxophonist and composer Marike van Dijk (you may know her from the North Sea Jazz composition assignment ‘Stranded’ from 2022), to create a contemporary and fresh big band sound. The ‘Nu’ in Nu Art Orchestra stands for 'new' and 'uncompromising'.

Following her studies in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Marike van Dijk left for New York. There she was educated at the renowned Manhattan School of Music and granted a scholarship to New York University, where she studied with pianist and arranger Gil Goldstein. About his former pupil and her album The Stereography Project, Goldstein said: ‘Marike’s writing has an organic quality; balanced and seeming to find ratios and combinations that are based in nature. I find her music very intuitive and feel that she has great honesty. This album will be just another step in a long career of composing.’

Line-up includes some of Europe's most inspiring jazz musicians.

Nu Art Orchestra:
Tineke Postma, saxophone
Marike van Dijk, saxophone, direction
Jasper Blom, saxophone
Jessie Brevé, saxophone
Wies van Toledo, saxophone
Shannon Barnett, trombone
Juliane Gralle, trombone
Louk Boudesteijn, trombone
Vincent Veneman, trombone
Suzan Veneman, trumpet
Ellister van der molen, trumpet
Alvaro Jimenez, trumpet
Diederik Rijpstra, trumpet
Ella Zirina, guitar
Franz von Chossy, piano
Anne Mette Iversen, bass
Mareike Wiening, drums

Recorded July 15-16-17 at TivoliVredenburg, the Netherlands by Chris Weeda

Marike van Dijk
Currently in Brisbane, Australia for a PhD in composition, Dutch saxophonist/composer/arranger Marike van Dijk has divided her time working and living between New York and the Netherlands over recent years.

Her most recent album features a collaboration between 2 singer-songwriters; Jeff Taylor from New Jersey (USA) and Katell Keineg from Cardiff (UK).

Marike wrote arrangements of their songs to be performed and recorded with her large group The Stereography Project. This ‘chamber jazz ensemble’ was also featured on her last album, called The Stereography Project (BJU records, 2015).

With this recording, she made her debut as a composer, moving away from purely focusing on being a soloist.

“Marike van Dijk’s writing has an organic quality; balanced and seems to find ratios and combinations that are based in nature. I find her music very intuitive and feel that she has great honesty. This record will be just another step in a long career of composing.” – Pianist/arranger Gil Goldstein

In 2011, Marike moved to New York to pursue a 2nd Masters degree for which she was awarded a full scholarship by the Dutch Huygens Talent Scholarship Programme. During her studies at New York University, she started writing for her own large ensemble called The Stereography Project and she joined the BMI jazz composer’s workshop in New York. Additionally, she started working on several interdisciplinary projects as a musician and a composer; with an improvisational dance company called The Lovelies and Andy Cavatorta’s new instruments.

A versatile musician, she has performed and toured with several bigbands; European Jazz Orchestra, Jazzmania Bigband, Jazzorchestra of the Concertgebouw, Dual City Concert Bigband, Konrad Koselleck Bigband, New Cool Collective Bigband, Amsterdam Jazz Orchestra, New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra, Holland Bigband as well as many smaller jazz groups.

Prior to commencing her PhD studies in Australia in 2019, she worked as a research assistant at the Antwerp Royal Conservatoire (Belgium) and was part of the saxophone faculty at the Institut fur Music in Osnabrück, Germany for several years. Additionally, she taught workshops and classes at Codarts Rotterdam, Groningen Conservatory and Amsterdam Conservatory.

This album contains no booklet.