Jazz saxophonist Tom van der Zaal and all female multi-disciplinary collective Shishani & Sisterhood were the two Dutch artists performing at the Solo International Performing Art (SIPA) last month. SIPA Festival 2021 is an annual performing art festival with creatives from Indonesia and other countries across the world. Theme of this year festival was ‘’The Great Light of Arts’’.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands is contributing to this festival for several editions in a row. For this year edition via a wonderful executed hybrid format. Both the concerts of Tom van der Zaal and Shishani & Sisterhood were live streamed from the Netherlands, Amsterdam: Tom van der Zaal from Club Cinetone and Shishani & Sisterhood from cultural venue Melkweg. The two performances gave a rich impression of the current Dutch contemporary music, in particular in jazz and world music.
Shishani is a vocalist, a guitarist and a songwriter famous for her powerful voice. Her roots are Namibian and Belgian, but she grew up in the Netherlands. Through her work, these worlds come together. Her work has a strong social consciousness centralizing women. For this concert, Shishane brings together a diverse line-up of multi-disciplinary performers centralizing female artists who also have roots in Indonesia. These artists are spoken word artist Tieka Masfar, batik expert Sabine Bolk, dancer-musician Wulan Dumatubun, dancer Asih Sungkono and tiva-group Tiga Batang Rumah.
Tom van der Zaal is an award winning saxophonist and composer from The Netherlands. His frequent appearance on international venues makes him one of Holland’s most successful young and upcoming artist: a new rising star in the international jazz scene worldwide. The music of Tom can be described as: lyrical, harmonious, energetic, adventurous and with emotional depth which you clearly hear in his debut album “Time Will Tell” an ode to the legendary Blue Note records from the 50s and 60s.
Internationalization by giving Dutch artists the opportunity to perform and meet Indonesian audience promote the development of talent and performances and help Dutch and Indonesia artists to reach a wider audience.
The concerts were live streamed on the YouTube channel of SIPA Festival, and you can still watch them in the links below:
