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The Dutch tenor (former boy soprano), Marcel Beekman, has always enjoyed singing with the radio, at school, etc. At eight years old he performed at the kids song-festival. It was his first public performance. He won First Place with the song L'oiseau et l'enfant. After a request by the Tros (TV station) for the program 'Grand Gala des Enfants' he decided to apply and he was requested to perform. He continued to sing popular songs. Five singles were recorded and released, but he wasn't very pleased with the results. After three years of piano lessons and two years of singing lessons from Frauke Vonk at the local music school, he got involved with a classical repertoire which gave him much more satisfaction. By then he began receiving invitations from several choirs, the performance at the EO-show: "For you I Wanna Sing" in May 1982, the recordings of this LP, recorded in the Lutheren church in Den Hague and at the goal concerts in December. He studied singing with Felix Schoonenboom at the Conservatory of the Meander College in Zwolle. After concluding his vocal studies at conservatory with distinction in 1993, he was coached by the renowned voice teacher Margreet Honig in Amsterdam.
Marcel Beekman is renowned for his interpretation of operatic character roles as well as early and contemporary music performances. He has performed the great German, French and Italian Baroque repertoire all over Europe, the USA, Middle East, South Africa and Japan in major concert venues and festivals.
Marcel Beekman has performed with such orchestras as the Berliner Symphoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Münchner Philharmoniker, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Musica Antiqua Köln, ASKO|Schönberg Ensemble, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon), Les Arts Florissants, Cappella Mediterranea, Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Collegium 1704, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Stavanger Symfoniorkester, Israel Camerata Orchestra Jerusalem, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto; as well as with all the major Dutch orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Residentie Orkest Den Haag. He has performed with specialized conductors such as Frans Brüggen, António Carrilho, William Christie, Richard Egarr, Leonardo García-Alarcón, Reinhard Goebel, Aapo Häkkinen, Micha Hamel, Jurjen Hempel, Yakov Kreizberg, Reinbert de Leeuw, Lev Markiz, Kenneth Montgomery, David Porcelijn, Christophe Rousset, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, and Jaap van Zweden. He has performed later repertoire as well with Sir Mark Elder, Iván Fischer, Claus Peter Flor, Daniele Gatti, Ariane Matiakh, Sir Simon Rattle, Lawrence Renes, Jérémie Rhorer, Steven Sloane and Ed Spanjaard.
Marcel Beekman's broad concert repertoire includes the vocal works of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries, solo motets for high tenor by François Couperin, oratorios by George Frideric Handel, Haydn, W.A. Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn, Rossini, Orff, but also less well-known works. Alongside these activities, accompanied at the piano by Hans Adolfsen, he can be heard in the entire range of traditional song repertoire, but focuses especially on contemporary song.
Marcel Beekman is also known for his outstanding ability in more avant-garde repertoire. He has worked extensively with conductors such as Reinbert de Leeuw, Sylvain Cambreling, John Adams, Marc Albrecht, Avner Biron and Jonathan Stockhammer in works by Igor Stravinsky, Alban Berg, Arthur Honegger, Frank Martin [Le Vin Herbé], Benjamin Britten, [Serenade and Nocturne], Gerald Finzi [Dies Natalis], Nicolas Obouchov, Pascal Dusapin, Edison Denisov, Mauricio Kagel, Witold Lutoslawski, Joseph Bardanashvili, Gottfried von Einem, György Kurtág and Peter Maxwell Davies [Job], and extends to the more avant-garde work of composers such as Peter Schat, Claude Vivier or John Cage. He has given many world premières that have been specially composed for his voice: Calliope Tsoupaki [St. Luke's Passion, Greek Love Songs, Oidípous, Liknón and Exodión], Martijn Padding, Roderik de Man, Micha Hamel, Elmer Schönberger, Jacques Bank, António Chagas Rosa, Myriam Marbe and Jeff Hamburg have written specifically for him, as have the younger generation of Dutch composers such as Reza Namavar, Joost Kleppe, Anke Brouwer, Bart Visman and Matthias Kadar.
Operatic repertoire includes Berenice in L’Ipermestra by Cavalli [released on CD in 2019], Nodrice in La Finta Pazza by Sacrati; the title role in Platée, the title role in Pygmalion and Valère, Damon, Don Carlos in Les Indes Galantes by Jean Philippe Rameau; Maître de Musique and Maître de Chant in Les Fêtes Vénitiennes by Campra, Nurse in Granida by P.C. Hooft, Arnalta and Nutrice in L’Incoronazione di Poppea [the 2018 Salzburg production is available on CD and DVD at Harmonia Mundi], Eumete in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and the title role and Pastore in Orfeo by Monteverdi; Lope in Don Chisciotte in Sierra Morena by Conti, Germanico in Arminio by Biber; High Priest of Apollo and Apollo in Alceste by C.W. von Gluck; Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Basilio and Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro by W.A. Mozart; Skrjagin in Skupoy by Pashkevich, Prince Nilski in Igrok by Prokofiev, Adrian in Der Sturm by Martin, Ein Tanzmeisterin Ariadne auf Naxos, 1., 2. and 4. Jude in Salome by R. Strauss [“…the well-executed quintet of bickering Jews was dominated by Marcel Beekman’s lacerant tenor…”]; Le Cabaretier in Benvenuto Cellini by Berlioz [available on DVD], Ulrich Eisslinger in Die Meistersinger von Nür by Wagner, Mime in Das Rheingold and Siegfried by Wagner; Hauptmann and Narr in Wozzeck by Alban Berg; Brack Weaver in Down in the valley by K. Weill; Primo Sacerdote in Il Prigioniero by Luigi Dallapiccola; Pégase, Sénéchal and Prêtre in L’écume des jours by Edison Denisov [International Diaghilev Award 2013]; the title role in Jonah the Naysayer by Willem Breuker; A season in hell, a quadripartite music theatre piece (with Theo Abazis, Barbara Woof and Paul Bruinen) by Roderik de Man; Arthur Rimbaud in Nuit de l’enfer by Roderik de Man; Wu Zhengwen in Memory of Lake Taiping by Xu Shuya; Laki Topalović in Maratonci Isidora by Žebeljan, Zamar in Legende by Peter-Jan Wagemans, Ricardo in Laika by Martijn Padding; Casella La Commedia and Pope Innocenzo XI in Theatre of the World by Louis Andriessen. Dutch national press unanimously applauded him for this latter role, being “a distinctively formidable Pope, touching and brilliant”. Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra released a double CD of the production on the Nonesuch label in autumn 2017 which was nominated for the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2018 in the category opera.
Marcel Beekman has worked at Dutch National Opera, Theater an der Wien, Opéra Comique de Paris, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Salzburger Festspiele, Bregenzer Festspiele, Opéra de Dijon, Opéra Royal de Versailles, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, Holland Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall New York with directors Robert Carsen, Barrie Kosky, Pierre Audi, Ivo van Hove, Claus Guth, Jean-Yves Ruf, Stefan Herheim, Tatjana Gürbaca [the press referred to Beekman’s Mime in her Vienna Ring-Trilogie of 2017 as “ausgezeichnet“, “mit schnarrendem Tenor ein genial winselnder Mime“, “ungemein wortdeutlich“, “ein köstlich-keifender Mime“ and “il flessuosissimo tenore olandese Marcel Beekman risplende in una parte più che controversa, indossando la kippah“], Hal Hartley, Nicola Raab, Jan Lauwers, Marcel Sijm and Krzysztof Warlikowski. The latter staged DNO’s 2017 production of Wozzeck in which Beekman’s interpretation of Der Hauptmann was described internationally as excellent and outstanding; sadistic and maniacal as well as “eccezionale” and “absolument unique”. The TV-registration of this production was released on DVD by Naxos.
At the Salzburger Festspiele Marcel Beekman performed the roles of Artistée and Pluton in Offenbach’s Orphée aux Enfers and also this successful production [conducted by Enrique Mazzola and directed by Barrie Kosky] is available on DVD at Naxos. “Pour l’union du mot et de la note, c’est à Marcel Beekman que revient la palme, Pluton parfaitement idiomatique, voguant d’un pas léger sur les hauteurs où le mène son ténor stratosphérique” wrote Diapason Magazine, and [according to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung] “Der Pluto des brillant singenden Tenors Marcel Beekman, der mit Koloraturen der Königin der Nacht eine virtuose Falsett-Einlage bietet.” His performance of the title role in Platée by Rameau was recorded for television in December 2020 and released on DVD and Blu-ray in August 2021 by Unitel Edition.
Marcel Beekman has participated in many recordings of J.S. Bach's vocal works, including the cantata cycle recorded by Pieter Jan Leusink with Holland Boys Choir.
Marcel Beekman lives and works in Amsterdam. He is represented world wide exclusively by Sorek Artists Management in Berlin. |
