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Vivienne Aerts

Vivienne Aerts is a Dutch vocalist, conductor, and composer with a focus on electronics and multisensory experience design. She has been residing in New York City since 2015 where she has performed at the Blue Note Jazz Club, Jazz Standard, Metropolitan room, and Mezzrow and has shared the stage with both national and international Jazz icons such as Lee Konitz, Kenny Werner, Chris Potter, Peter Erskine, and Florian Weber. Together with her husband, who is a pastry chef, she organizes events and performances under the name Vervool using jazz, haute cuisine, and modern art. Aerts is currently working on her third album, Typuhthâng, a musical exchange with over 100 female musicians to empower female cacao farmers of Virunga State Park Congo. In 2018 she spoke at the National Fulbright conference in Mexico and recorded on Kenny Werner’s Vinyl release Church On Mars with Dave Liebman, Terri Lyne Carrington, and James Genus in 2019.

Aerts studied on a Fulbright at Berklee College of Music with renowned jazz musicians such as Danilo Pérez, Joe Lovano, and John Patitucci, among others. Before moving to America, Aerts trained as a jazz/pop choir conductor and got a bachelor's and a master's degree in clinical psychology. She worked several years as a psychologist, teacher, and conductor of several choirs as well as sang with different bands.

Awards

International Songwriting Competition (2024) - Semi-finalist in the category Performance with song Streetlamps:

Global Music Award (2024) - Awarded silver medals for both best alternative jazz and best female vocal jazz with album ‘Typuhthâng’ from the Global Music Awards.

International Songwriting Competition (2023) - Semi-finalist in two categories:
- Song Silence from album Typuhthâng in the jazz category
- Song 'You’re my morning' video in the music video category

Premios Quirino (2024) - Music video award

ChileMonos (2023) - Awarded First prize in Animated Music Video at for You're my morning music video

SMOF stop motion our fest (2023) - Jury mention, category short film for You're my morning music video

World Illustration Awards (2023) - Artwork Typuthâng longlisted

Netherland America Foundation Cultural Grant (2021). - Grant to produce album Typuhthâng

SENA music producers grant (2020)

VSB fonds (2012)

Fulbright Scholarship / NACEE 2011

Co Verhoog Prize (2011)

Zoetermeer Jazz Award (2010)

Berklee Umbria Jazz Scholarship Award (2007)

Vivienne Aerts: Typuhthâng

by Chris May
March 6, 2023

Typuhthâng is a luminous, exquisitely crafted suite of music and an album on a mission. The mission is twofold: to mark International Women's Day with a recording performed and engineered by women, for everyone, and to provide financial support to The Femmes de Virunga, a cacao farming collective of 1,500 women in Virunga State Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The album grew out of conversations between the Dutch-born, New York-based singer and composer Vivienne ...

Primary Instrument

Vocals

Location

New York City

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Credentials/Background

Currently, Aerts is a faculty member at Berklee College of music where she has been instrumental in building a new generation of performers who are not only skilled musicians but also mentally and physically healthy individuals. She is known for addressing core issues artists and educators alike have been grappling with unnoticed for generations: mental health, well-being, and the hamster-wheel effect the neglect of the same threatens to have on the arts eco-system.

Primary Instrument

Vocals

Location

New York City

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Credentials/Background

https://college.berklee.edu/faculty/vivienne-aerts

My journey...

With a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, I began my career as a therapist in private practice, assisting individuals in their journey toward personal growth and healing. Alongside my work, I also pursued music as a vocalist, conductor, and educator, and attended the conservatory for choir conducting and vocal performance. Besides my work as an artist, I conducted several choirs including one composed of individuals with severe mental health conditions, using music as a therapeutic tool. Continuing my pursuit of innovative musical approaches, I went on to develop and teach summer courses in "Mindful Improvisation" at Leiden University. These courses catered to both musicians and non-musicians and focused on integrating mindfulness practices into the act of improvisation.

Then, in 2012, I received a Fulbright Scholarship to study vocal performance and composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston. During my last semester, I met pianist and composer Kenny Werner, who recognized my deep understanding of music and psychology which led to my involvement with the Berklee Effortless Mastery Institute for nine years. As a current faculty at Berklee and in masterclasses all over the world my focus lies in empowering musicians to unleash their inner voices, reshaping their minds, and allowing their talents to manifest. My techniques have proven to be incredibly effective and life-changing, revolutionizing the way musicians approach their craft.

As a musician my collaborators since have included some of the most iconic names in the world of jazz.* My edible ‘experience’ events were the root of my multi-disciplinary approach to the making of my new album, ‘Typuhthâng’, which not just features a 100 female musicians from around the globe, but also comes with a bar of bean-to-bar chocolate from Original Beans Chocolate, a company that pro-actively empowers female cacao farmers of Virunga State Park in Congo.

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