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Louise Alexandra

Louise Alexandra (fka Van Aarsen) Koopman, holds a PhD in cancer Biology and spends much of her days researching & developing novel cancer immunotherapies, but is equally passionate about music and singing.

While living and working in Boston for 15 years, Louise's musical 'side-career' took off under the wings of the late and great jazz vocalist and mentor Rebecca Parris, who embraced Louise as her musical protegee.

Besides interpreting the great American songbook standards, Louise started writing her own songs; poignant stories and catchy compositions with a unique flavor in a mix of jazz, latin, pop, and singer/songwriter fusion. The result: "DESTINY", an impressive debut album recorded with some of Boston’s finest jazz musicians at PBS Studios. Rebecca Parris directed and produced Destiny and also directed the recordings of the upcoming album "TODAY", but sadly passed before seeing the second album come to fruition. The dedication is evident.

Having since returned to The Netherlands, where she continues her scientific career, Louise is excited to release her next album of original music on 12/12/2020! Listen online or order your hard copy CD (beautifully designed by one of Louise's talented daughters,Mae van Aarsen, who also sings on the album) TODAY

Louise Alexandra: Today

Read "Today" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
December 12, 2020

From Destiny to Today ...Vocalist and composer Louise Alexandra's Today requires a bit of unpacking. In 2012, a wunderkind polymath named Louise van Aarsen released a debut recording, Destiny, receiving positive critical attention. Known as Dr. Louise Koopman in her day job as Sr. Research Scientist at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and in the Boston biotech scene, the singer Van Aarsen proved richly multifaceted. At the time, a Dutch expatriate, the singer sought the counsel of another singer ...

Bailey's Bundles

Jazz Singer/Songwriters Part I: Louise Van Aarsen and Rebecka Larsdotter

by C. Michael Bailey
June 17, 2012

We can only hear “My Funny Valentine" so many times presented in so many manners. Writer Scott Yanow, in his book The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide (Backbeat Books, 2008), called for a moratorium on singers recording this and several other songs because, like “Stairway to Heaven" and “Freebird" (for those from behind the Cotton Curtain), we have heard these songs enough. One way that an artist may address standards fatigue is to avoid them altogether and write their own ...