Muziekpublique hoped to be able to organise live concerts with an audience again in April, but unfortunately the circumstances do not allow this. In order to support the music sector nevertheless and bring music to the audience, we came up with the following idea: the solo challenge. Until the end of April, we give artists the stage for 30-minute solo performances that you can watch via a live stream.
On 16 April, Laura Cortese kicks off the challenge. She is a violinist, singer, songwriter and organiser. After leaving California to study at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, she founded the ‘Miles of Music Camp’ and the ‘BCMfest’ festival. She played with several bands and founded her own string quartet ‘Laura Cortese & the Dance Card’s. Their self-written songs are based on the themes and patterns of authentic folk songs while integrating new rhythms, sounds and colour palettes. As soon as Laura starts playing – with her percussive strumming on the violin and her powerful sultry voice – you are plunged into a heavy dose of post-folk. Two years ago Laura moved to Ghent and learned Dutch.
Laura taught violin and singing at Newcastle University in England and the University of Limerick in Ireland and regularly gives violin, singing and dancing workshops at many fiddle camps, including Alasdair Fraser’s ‘Valley of the Moon Fiddle School’, Mark O’Connor’s Nashville Fiddle Camp, the Sierra Fiddle Camp in the US, Folkworks Youth Summer School in Newcastle, UK and Wouter Vandenabeele’s ‘Fiddlers on the Move’ in Ghent.
Catch the live stream on our facebook page or on our youtube channel at 8PM !