BIOGRAPHY FRANCINE VAN DAM

Playing/producing ,composing, policy-developing and teaching to make a difference. Music has the rare capacity of reaching people in a non-mind way; putting them in contact, bringing an instant effect of harmony. Radiating energy and putting away the troubles and problems of everyday life, giving new focuses.

It is a gift I have always been able to express. I come from a home were almost only classical music was played, so that was my first acquaintance with music. Even in high school I was already invited to play in public, but I felt the success was too easy, since, as my brother always put it: ”If your sheet music is blown away by the wind, you have nothing to play anymore”. So I decided to enrol at  the Jazz-Conservatory, to learn to improvise. After that, I became involved with Caribbean music, playing with a variety of bands and musicians.

Playing/ Producing
I very early started out having my own bands. Already in 1986 ( I was 22) , after making my band play in the local clubs for some years, I organized a tour in France for my Van Dam Quartet (jazz)  . After that, I one way or another always wound up again with my own bands. I wrote the arrangements, I was the musical director and I did all the bookings and promotion. But the only way to make a living from it, was having several bands at the same time. When I realized that it was too much, I did  two years of post-graduate studies in marketing and management for the cultural field, hoping to canalise  my efforts.  My final practical assignment for those studies I did in the department of Cultural Affairs of the Cabinet of the Plenipotentiary Minister of the Dutch Antilles in Holland. After that, I was front-of-house manager for our national leading theatre in World Music, the Tropenmuseum, during big festivals.
During one of those festivals I met my Cuba connection. As a result we founded the “Claves Foundation” (a production company for stage-arts) and planned a cultural exchange programme, including bands, CD’s, magazines and even cultural trips to Cuba. I also returned to my own musical projects and made a CD  with the music from Curaçao that I had been collecting for 20 years: ”CARICIA DI TOTOLIKA.” I invited the leading Curaçaon musicians living in Holland, and recorded an all-acoustic CD with old songs, preserving a music style that is disappearing all too quickly.

Having done this project, going to the very root of a musical culture which I consider is something every musician should do, I decided that I wanted to get involved again in Latin Jazz in its broadest definition. Returning to a musical style I already had made mine, equally interesting, but with possibilities of connecting to a much wider audience. So I rounded up  some of my old musicians, and off we went:” The Latin Jazz Nestors”.  I wanted to make a bigger band, so I put together a Caribbean band with representatives from different Caribbean cultures: the “Afro Caribbean All Stars” and jumped at the possibility of taking this 9-piece Latin Jazz band to South Africa. Looking back, it was quite an experience. Being a female band leader over a group of Caribbean males from different countries. The band sounded explosive, and we did some valuable workshops

Composing
In 1992 I wrote a no.1 hit for Curacao:”Dos Rosas”. After that I didn’t go public with my compositions for years, but in 2008 I received two composing grants, one for the Wereld Kinder Festival, Festival hit: Baila Tumba!, and one for scores for the Surinam theatre piece: BIDI DU.

Policy-developing
It is important for me to help construct a solid infrastructure in music for all participants of society. That’s why I work for Kunstfactor ( national institute for the non-professional arts in Holland).

Teaching
As we know teaching is also a two-way process. The role of the teacher is connecting the various skills present in the pupil, creating and developing new abilities. By observing very closely the teacher also is part of the creative process, finding the right answers to the present questions. Connecting wires. My favourite way of teaching is working with people of unexpected or to me unknown environments, like projects with kids from different ethnic backgrounds, and doing large workshops with sometimes up to 70 participants.

I feel that that is where my place is: In inter-cultural  projects, putting my skills together: composing, producing, developing policies, playing and teaching.