Tiptoe Company plays contemporary chamber music for surprising instrumental combinations. ´Delicate´ instruments as acoustic guitar, double bass, recorder, harp and cello are brought together. ´On tiptoe´ they discover musical borders - on the edge of silence, or in intense chamber music.
Since ´19 visual artist A De Causmaecker is joining the core of the ensemble.
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Jona Kesteleyn | guitar
Jona is a ‘multifaced’ guitarist. As a performer he switches easily from classical to contemporary music. He performed with the Flemisch Opera Orchestra, La Monnaie/De Munt, Spectra Ensemble and Zwerm. He is also one of the founders of ‘Tiptoe Company’.
In 2006 he received his Master Degree at the Royal Conservatory in Gent, where he studied with Yves Storms. He continued a ‘Master after Master in Contemporary Music’ under the guidance of the members of Ictus and Spectra Ensemble. He was awarded the greatest distinction, both for his Master and Advanced Master Dergree. Ictus guitarist Tom Pauwels, Johan Fostier and Graham Anthony Devine inspired him during his early career.
He also proved his skills as a prize-winner in international competitions as Ivor Mairants Guitar Competition in Londen (third prizes in 2009 and 2010) and the Twents Gitaar Festival Competition in Enschede (third prize in 2010).
He plays with pianist guitarist Geneviève Lannoy (Duo Dipsô), recorder player Ruth Van Killegem and harpsichord player Guy Penson (Arsis, Tiptoe Company), pianist Frederik Croene and double bassist Pieter Lenaerts (Tiptoe Company).
persoonlijke website
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Pieter Lenaerts | double bass
Pieter Lenaerts (°1977), double bassist and e-bassist, first studied composition with Luc Van Hove at the "Lemmens Institute" in Leuven, where he obtained a master in 2002. Shortly after he studied classical double bass with Ludo Joly at the Ghent conservatory where he obtained a master in 2005. Since then he is a freelance double bassist and double bass teacher with a continuous interest in new music. Apart from this academic musical formation, Pieter learned a lot about different ´ethnic´ kinds of music as a double bassist on the international ´ethno´-scene of folk-, world- and jazz groups, since 1999. Several interesting musical collaborations with many great musicians coming from entirely different backgrounds made him travel to various places worldwide, and all these experiences helped him a lot to grow as an improvising musician as well. In 2012 Pieter started studying an ´advanced master in contemporary music´ at the School of Arts in Ghent, coached by the Belgian Ictus and Spectra ensembles, in which he focuses on extending his repertoire in contemporary chamber music. Also he is extending the diversity of instruments he uses, performing contemporary music on e-bass and five-string double bass as well. Around the same time he also attended some master classes with Klangforum Wien double bassist Uli Fussenegger. |
Ruth Van Killegem | recorder
Ruth Van Killegem is a recorder player and studied at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven. She obtained a Master Degree and an Advanced Master Degree as a student of Bart Spanhove and Bart Coen, both with the greatest distinction. Beside that she has a Master in Chamber Music and a Master as a harpsichordist.
She was a prize winner in international competitions: the LINK-music prize in Tilburg for young promissing musicians and the second prize, ànd public prize, at the renowed Musica Antiqua competition in Bruges. She´s oftenly invited to play as a soloist with Il Gardelino. She recorded ´Lamentationes´ with this ensemble, a CD with concerto´s by Antonio Vivaldi, which was awarded a ´Choc du Monde´ by the French renowed magazine ´Le Monde de la Musique´.
She´s regularly playing in duo with harpsichordist Guy Penson, and with guitarist Jona Kesteleyn (duo, Tiptoe Company). |
Jutta Troch | harp
Jutta Troch (Belgium 1985) studied harp with Anja Goossenaerts in Hemiksem and at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp with Sophie Hallynck, where she graduated in 2008 as Master of Music. In addition, she studied historical harps with Hannelore Devaere in St. Lambert Woluwe.
Jutta currently specializes in the contemporary music repertoire and followed the Master after Master program contemporary chamber music. This is organized by the Conservatory of Ghent and the ensemble Ictus and Spectra. As a performer of new music is Jutta related to the ensembles Nadar and Besides with whom she played on several major contemporary music festivals as the ´International Ferienkurse Darmstadt´, ´Musica Strassbourg’, ‘Ars Musica Brussels’, ‘What´s Next Festival’ ... As a freelance musician, she has been active with Ictus, Spectra, Het Paleis, Dez Mona (alternative pop) and with several orchestras. She also plays on baroque harp with the collective BOX.
In addition to her activities as a performing musician, she is co-founder and jointly responsible for practical and artistic operations of Besides and What´s Next, a festival for contemporary music in Brussels. |
Seraphine Stragier | cello
Seraphine Stragier (°1985) studied cello at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where she graduated with great distinction in 2009. From 2009 to 2012 she did a specialization in ´Contempory Music´ in the same institute. With Tim Vandenbergh she´s organizing a cycle of house concerts, combining the Suites for cello solo by Bach with contemporary music.
Next to classical and contemporary music she´s playing pomusic and musictheater. Currently she´s playing in a production of Zita Swoon Group, ´A New Old World´. She shows herself as multi-intrumentalist in ´Songs we embrace´, a production of Laïs where she plays cello, celtic harp and violin. Together witth Jeroen Baert, Yumika Lecluyze, Karel Coninx en Tim Vandenbergh she´s playing in "sun*sun*sun Orkestra", playing pop-, jazz- and contemporary music. She´s also member of the cello quartet of ´Aton&Armide´ conducted by Benjamin Glorieux, to be heard in "Trauerzeit" by Johan Leysen.
As a freelance musician she also playing in Champ d´Action, Ensemble 21, Brussels Philharmonic, Il Novecento, .... |
A De Causmaecker | artist
A De Causmaecker is een beeldend kunstenaar die zich zowel thuisvoelt in haar atelier als in de muziek theatrale wereld. Ze maakt scenografieën voor tentoonstellingen, exposities in theaterzalen en creëert ruimtes voor hedendaags klassieke muziek. Ze werkte samen met ensembles als het Spectra Ensemble, Champ d’ Action, Duo Adentro, Odysseia ensemble, en componisten als Annelies Van Parys, Julia Emmery en Linde Timmermans. Vanaf 2019 is ze als vaste beeldend kunstenaar verbonden aan Tip Toe Company. Met het kunstenaarscollectief DUOBAAN XL creëert ze eigentijdse antwoorden op de wereld van vandaag. Ze werd in 2015 geselecteerd voor een kunstenaarsresidentie in de Academia Belgica in Rome. In 2017-2018 bekwam ze een ontwikkelingsgerichte beurs van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap. |
Programs
Hacking the piano In ´Hacking the piano´ the string instruments of Tiptoe Company & ChampdAction are confronted with the piano as a sound object. The performers engage in dialogue with ‘piano hackers’: artists/composers who each have an original relationship to the keyboard instrument. They still use the piano, but have rebuilt the instrument in accordance with their own creative needs (Tim Mariën). At the same time, tools such as sound amplification and ‘live electronics’ are used (Patricia Alessandrini). A ‘virtual instrument’ is created alongside the physical instruments and performers.
Music: Tim Mariën & Patricia Alessandrini
Coproduction: ChampdAction, Transit Festival, deSingel
Oeil exterieur: A De Causmaecker
Musicians: Jutta Troch, harp; Jona Kesteleyn, guitar; Fabian Coomans & Sara Picavet, piano’s; Liesbeth Lambrecht, viola; Pieter Lenaerts, double bass; Jasmijn Lootens, cello
Fonetica With one visual artist and four musicians, ensemble Tiptoe Company performs different kinds of “speech music”, music that is searching for a close connection with the sound of spoken language in particular and the true nature of sound in general. Double bassist and composer-in-residence Pieter Lenaerts translated music of microtonal pioneer composers Nicola Vicentino (16th century) and Harry Partch (20th century) to the possibilities of the performing quartet, and adds personal creations to that repertoire, in close collaboration with the other musicians and visual artist A De Causmaecker.
Ruth Van Killegem: recorders
Jona Kesteleyn: guitars, overtone flutes
Jasmijn Lootens: cello, overtone flutes
Pieter Lenaerts: double bass, bass guitar, overtone flutes, voice, composer-in-residence
A De Causmaecker: visual artist
Immobilier Instable Trois ouvriers atypiques dans un chantier. Ils découvrent - comme des enfants - que des tuyaux et des raccords peuvent servir comme instruments musicaux. Des jeux rythmiques répétitifs et des découvertes sonores les inspirent à monter une construction tubulaire imposante qui servira comme énorme flûte spatial jouée simultanément par les trois personages.
jeu: Pieter Lenaerts, Jona Kesteleyn, Anneleen De Causmaecker
Grain Instrumental sound, stripped off, skinned.
Looking for the heart, the "grain" of acoustic noise.
Strings clatter, growl, groan. Musicians are forced into a ritual struggle. The instrument cries as it surrenders.
José Maria Sanchez-Verdu ´Nada´ (2007)
cello, guitar
Frederik Neyrinck ´Mischung VI´ (2012)
recorder, harp, guitar, cello, double bass
Raphaël Cendo ´Faction´ (2011),
steel string guitar, prepared´ piano, percussion
Jona Kesteleyn, guitar; Pieter Lenaerts, double bass; Seraphine Stragier, cello; Ruth Van Killegem, recorder; Jutta Troch, harp; Sara Picavet, piano; Tom De Cock, percussion
video YouTube
Mobile-Stabile Mobile-Stabile is a moving work of art, a dreammachine. A musician enters a world where everything is balancing, nothing is fixed. Sheep endlessly move around, the guitarist is floating in the air playing his lullaby and we count together for a stabile equilibrium. A short performance about the moment before falling asleep, the hanging doze in between reality and dream.
With Jona Kesteleyn (musician) and A De Causmaecker (artist).
In collaboration with Big Bang Festival.
video YouTube
Parafrasi Paraphrasing music has been a creative tool for composers and music-makers since ages. Giving former musical ideas a new ‘élan’ or different perspective. Fragments of ´stolen´ music organically transformed into a contemporary language of sounds. Old and new ´traditions´ juxtaposed and complementing one another.
Compositions and ´paraphrases´ by Jacob Van Eyck, Frederik Neyrinck, Maurizio Pisati, Domenico Scarlatti, Joris Blanckaert, Nicola Vicentino and Harry Partch.
Ruth Van Killegem: recorders
Jona Kesteleyn: guitar
Jutta Troch: harp
Jasmijn Lootens or Seraphine Stragier: cello
Pieter Lenaerts: double bass
Folia The former one was a sauvage dance, carnival and fertility rituals, and finally “the” Folia Theme. Folies, folia de España and so called craziness, oddness, eccentricity, artifice, joke, capriccio. In this work, we are shipped on the ancient Stultifera Navis, the Ship of Fools, As we are boarded, we see eyes, hands and handwriting: they tell us -through pictures and sounds- the invention’s eccentricity, or the human foolishness leaving us free to cry or giddy dancing. mp
TRAILER
Music and concept: Maurizio Pisati
Co-production: ChampdAction, MAfestival
Ruth Van Killegem: recorders and objects
Jona Kesteleyn: acoustic & electric guitar, objects
Pieter Lenaerts: double bass, electric bass, objects
Seraphine Stragier: cello & objects
Tom De Cock : percussion & objects
Guy Penson: harpsichord
Maurizio Pisati: live electronics
A New Basement of Strings Tiptoe Company goes ´underground´, into the world of Tim Mariën´s basement full of strings. Mariën is piano tuner, composer and musicologist. The intense study of Harry Partch gave him the impuls to develop his own music. During years of experimentation in his basement - litterally, the basement in his house in Heist-op-den-Berg (Belgium) - he deconstructed, rebuilt and retuned old pianos and other string instruments. Some ideas from this period would serve as a starting point for an intense collaboration between the composer and Tiptoe Company. Layers of different tunings and intrumental colours, compostition versus improvisation, the ´social´ aspect of ensemble playing, the composer as an overviewing architect, the acoustic balance between string instruments of all kinds, and the struggle of musicians (re)discovering their instruments in a totally new way, are a few of the issues and challenges in ´A New Basement of Strings´, an elaborate work-in-progress for retuned piano´s, guitars, harps, double bass and cello.
Pieter Lenaerts: double bass
Jona Kesteleyn: guitars
Seraphine Stragier: cello an harp
Jutta Troch: harp
Sara Picavet: microtonal piano
Tim Mariën: microtonal piano Alessandrini-Pisati-Cendo Especially for What´s Next Festival (Ars Musica 2013, Brussels) Tiptoe Company put together a program, consciously searching for extreme contrasts.
´Menus morceaux par un autre moi réuni´ for guitar and electronics by Patricia Alessandrini is a suggestif piece, sometimes on the edge of silence. Cautiously a krystal object is used to rub and activate the guitarstrings.
An almost chocking contrast makes ´Faction´ by Raphaël Cendo. Cendo is using instrumental distorion and saturation in his dense sonoric music. Tiptoe Company chooses for a ´naked´ version of the pieces (written for Nikel Ensemble), using an acoustic guitar instead of e-guitar, next to a prepared piano and percussion.
In this program Maurizio Pisatis music serves as the ´missing link´ relying the little gestures in Alessandrinis music to the ´big´ gestures in Cendo.
Jona Kesteleyn: guitar
Pieter Lenaerts: double bass
Tom De Cock: percussion
Sara Picavet: piano |
Hacking the piano
In ´Hacking the piano´ the string instruments of Tiptoe Company & ChampdAction are confronted with the piano as a sound object. The performers engage in dialogue with ‘piano hackers’: artists/composers who each have an original relationship to the keyboard instrument. They still use the piano, but have rebuilt the instrument in accordance with their own creative needs (Tim Mariën). At the same time, tools such as sound amplification and ‘live electronics’ are used (Patricia Alessandrini). A ‘virtual instrument’ is created alongside the physical instruments and performers.
Music: Tim Mariën & Patricia Alessandrini
Coproduction: ChampdAction, Transit Festival, deSingel
Oeil exterieur: A De Causmaecker
Musicians: Jutta Troch, harp; Jona Kesteleyn, guitar; Fabian Coomans & Sara Picavet, piano’s; Liesbeth Lambrecht, viola; Pieter Lenaerts, double bass; Jasmijn Lootens, cello
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Fonetica
With one visual artist and four musicians, ensemble Tiptoe Company performs different kinds of “speech music”, music that is searching for a close connection with the sound of spoken language in particular and the true nature of sound in general. Double bassist and composer-in-residence Pieter Lenaerts translated music of microtonal pioneer composers Nicola Vicentino (16th century) and Harry Partch (20th century) to the possibilities of the performing quartet, and adds personal creations to that repertoire, in close collaboration with the other musicians and visual artist A De Causmaecker.
Ruth Van Killegem: recorders
Jona Kesteleyn: guitars, overtone flutes
Jasmijn Lootens: cello, overtone flutes
Pieter Lenaerts: double bass, bass guitar, overtone flutes, voice, composer-in-residence
A De Causmaecker: visual artist
|
Immobilier Instable
Trois ouvriers atypiques dans un chantier. Ils découvrent - comme des enfants - que des tuyaux et des raccords peuvent servir comme instruments musicaux. Des jeux rythmiques répétitifs et des découvertes sonores les inspirent à monter une construction tubulaire imposante qui servira comme énorme flûte spatial jouée simultanément par les trois personages.
jeu: Pieter Lenaerts, Jona Kesteleyn, Anneleen De Causmaecker
|
Grain
Instrumental sound, stripped off, skinned.
Looking for the heart, the "grain" of acoustic noise.
Strings clatter, growl, groan. Musicians are forced into a ritual struggle. The instrument cries as it surrenders.
José Maria Sanchez-Verdu ´Nada´ (2007)
cello, guitar
Frederik Neyrinck ´Mischung VI´ (2012)
recorder, harp, guitar, cello, double bass
Raphaël Cendo ´Faction´ (2011),
steel string guitar, prepared´ piano, percussion
Jona Kesteleyn, guitar; Pieter Lenaerts, double bass; Seraphine Stragier, cello; Ruth Van Killegem, recorder; Jutta Troch, harp; Sara Picavet, piano; Tom De Cock, percussion
video YouTube
|
Mobile-Stabile
Mobile-Stabile is a moving work of art, a dreammachine. A musician enters a world where everything is balancing, nothing is fixed. Sheep endlessly move around, the guitarist is floating in the air playing his lullaby and we count together for a stabile equilibrium. A short performance about the moment before falling asleep, the hanging doze in between reality and dream.
With Jona Kesteleyn (musician) and A De Causmaecker (artist).
In collaboration with Big Bang Festival.
video YouTube
|
Parafrasi
Paraphrasing music has been a creative tool for composers and music-makers since ages. Giving former musical ideas a new ‘élan’ or different perspective. Fragments of ´stolen´ music organically transformed into a contemporary language of sounds. Old and new ´traditions´ juxtaposed and complementing one another.
Compositions and ´paraphrases´ by Jacob Van Eyck, Frederik Neyrinck, Maurizio Pisati, Domenico Scarlatti, Joris Blanckaert, Nicola Vicentino and Harry Partch.
Ruth Van Killegem: recorders
Jona Kesteleyn: guitar
Jutta Troch: harp
Jasmijn Lootens or Seraphine Stragier: cello
Pieter Lenaerts: double bass
|
Folia
The former one was a sauvage dance, carnival and fertility rituals, and finally “the” Folia Theme. Folies, folia de España and so called craziness, oddness, eccentricity, artifice, joke, capriccio. In this work, we are shipped on the ancient Stultifera Navis, the Ship of Fools, As we are boarded, we see eyes, hands and handwriting: they tell us -through pictures and sounds- the invention’s eccentricity, or the human foolishness leaving us free to cry or giddy dancing. mp
TRAILER
Music and concept: Maurizio Pisati
Co-production: ChampdAction, MAfestival
Ruth Van Killegem: recorders and objects
Jona Kesteleyn: acoustic & electric guitar, objects
Pieter Lenaerts: double bass, electric bass, objects
Seraphine Stragier: cello & objects
Tom De Cock : percussion & objects
Guy Penson: harpsichord
Maurizio Pisati: live electronics
|
A New Basement of Strings
Tiptoe Company goes ´underground´, into the world of Tim Mariën´s basement full of strings. Mariën is piano tuner, composer and musicologist. The intense study of Harry Partch gave him the impuls to develop his own music. During years of experimentation in his basement - litterally, the basement in his house in Heist-op-den-Berg (Belgium) - he deconstructed, rebuilt and retuned old pianos and other string instruments. Some ideas from this period would serve as a starting point for an intense collaboration between the composer and Tiptoe Company. Layers of different tunings and intrumental colours, compostition versus improvisation, the ´social´ aspect of ensemble playing, the composer as an overviewing architect, the acoustic balance between string instruments of all kinds, and the struggle of musicians (re)discovering their instruments in a totally new way, are a few of the issues and challenges in ´A New Basement of Strings´, an elaborate work-in-progress for retuned piano´s, guitars, harps, double bass and cello.
Pieter Lenaerts: double bass
Jona Kesteleyn: guitars
Seraphine Stragier: cello an harp
Jutta Troch: harp
Sara Picavet: microtonal piano
Tim Mariën: microtonal piano |
Alessandrini-Pisati-Cendo
Especially for What´s Next Festival (Ars Musica 2013, Brussels) Tiptoe Company put together a program, consciously searching for extreme contrasts.
´Menus morceaux par un autre moi réuni´ for guitar and electronics by Patricia Alessandrini is a suggestif piece, sometimes on the edge of silence. Cautiously a krystal object is used to rub and activate the guitarstrings.
An almost chocking contrast makes ´Faction´ by Raphaël Cendo. Cendo is using instrumental distorion and saturation in his dense sonoric music. Tiptoe Company chooses for a ´naked´ version of the pieces (written for Nikel Ensemble), using an acoustic guitar instead of e-guitar, next to a prepared piano and percussion.
In this program Maurizio Pisatis music serves as the ´missing link´ relying the little gestures in Alessandrinis music to the ´big´ gestures in Cendo.
Jona Kesteleyn: guitar
Pieter Lenaerts: double bass
Tom De Cock: percussion
Sara Picavet: piano |
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