Lucette van den Berg ....

Lucette van den Berg is one of the leading voices in the vanguard of a new generation of Yiddish singers. She performed at theatres, in concert halls and at festivals throughout Europe and North America. Her debut compact disc Zing Shtil (2005) was highly praised by the critics.

Lucette was born at Kampen the Netherlands. At the age of seven she took her first piano lessons. Her real passion however was to sing and after only a few singing lessons she was admitted to the Zwolle college of Music as a student of classical song. Following her studies she performed as a soloist singing opera, oratories and recitals of lieder. In her study at home she started singing Yiddish songs, just for the fun of it.

Perhaps one of the key events in Lucette’s musical career was that she met and befriended the well-known author and composer Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman who made her more aware of her Jewish roots. Van den Berg stayed on with Beyle in New York for an extended period, during which she was given new songs that had not been published yet. Lucette wrote the arrangements and recorded a compact disc, Friling, awarded third prize in the JPF Song Awards 2009 in the USA. After that, singing Yiddish songs was the logical consequence.

Lucette is a singer who mainly sings a repertoire written especially for her. She does not restrict herself to performing Yiddish music in all its splendour but wants to develop it as well. Therefore she initiated, and was appointed director of, the Yiddish Festival at Leeuwarden (the Netherlands) which in 2008 was staged for the first time.

Lucette is a striking performer whose exceptionally warm and expressive voice carries a very distinct sound. Her unique repertoire extends to new material written especially for her by composers like Alan Bern (Brave Old World) and poet/ composer Mikhoel Felsenbaum. She also writes songs herself which can be heard in her show, Vint fun Berg, along with songs by Felsenbaum.

Lucette van den Berg co-operated with Alan Bern, Georg Brinkmann, Efim Chorny, Christian Dawid, Suzanne Ghergus, Sanne Möricke, Lorin Sklamberg, Shtetl Band Amsterdam, Mazzeltov and many others, Het performances have been broadcast  by AVRO, KRO, Joodse Omroep (Jewish Broadcast), EO (all in the Netherlands), the WDR in Germany and SBS radio in Australia.
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