Baruch Chauskin

 

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Duo NIHZ

 

Together Bobby Rootveld and  Sanna van Elst form Duo NIHZ. The duo uses guitar, vocals, recorders, percussion, melodica and other instruments. They are from the Netherlands but currently live in Germany. NIHZ means in Dutch ‘Niet-In-Het-Zwart’ and in English this means ‘Not-Wearing-Black-Clothes’. Sanna van Elst and Bobby Rootveld graduated at the Artez Conservatory of Enschede, Holland. Bobby Rootveld's main maestros between 1995 and 2006 were Fred Rootveld and Louis Ignatius Gall. Louis Ignatius Gall is a former student of Andrés Segovia. Sanna van Elst's main maestros between 1998 and 2004 were Marjolijn van Roon and Bert Honig.

Duo NIHZ has a big repertoire including renaissance, baroque, romantic, Spanish, own compositions, Jazz, Folk, Pop, Rock, Avant-Garde, Jewish music and world music. Their repertoire also includes music by composers specially composed for Duo NIHZ. Since 2007 Duo NIHZ mainly plays Jewish Music and also classical music mixed with music theatre and comedy. Often Duo NIHZ also collaborates with other artists like storytellers (Loek Boer, Benjamin Stedler), guitarist Alberto Mesirca, guitarist and folksinger Jerry Silverman, singer Felim Sheridan and saxophonist Gergö Pazmandi. The way Duo NIHZ performs could be called ‘not-traditional’. Besides Chamber Music Duo NIHZ also performs with musictheatre-programmes, children’s concerts and programmes on unexpected locations. Duo NIHZ performed for national televison and radio in several countries. Duo NIHZ performed in numerous countries and on special location, churches, concert halls and festivals including: The Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, The Rundetaarn in Copenhagen, The Portugese Synagogue of Amsterdam, The Taj Concert Hall in Thimpu Bhutan, Kolkata Classical Guitar Festival in India, Thailand Guitar Festival in Bangkok, Mottola Guitar Festival in Italy, Encs Guitar Festival in Hungary, San Miguel Guitar Festival in Argentina, Hong Kong Guitar Festival, Shenzhen Guitar Festival in China, Recuerdos Alkmaar Guitar Festival (Holland) Twents Guitar Festival (Holland), Malaysia Classical Guitar Camp & Festival, Gitaarsalon Enkhuizen Guitar Festival (Holland) Sontakke Music Festival (India), Jewish Galicia Museum in Krakow (Poland), Jewish Holocaust and Refugee Museum in Shanghai (China) and in numerous of other locations and events in Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Poland, India, Bhutan, Thailand, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Israel, Argentina  etc. Duo NIHZ released several cd’s and dvd’s. In 2009 Duo NIHZ received a special 'Certificate of Acknowledgement' during the International Jewish Music Festival of Amsterdam. In January 2011 Duo NIHZ opened it’s own concert hall in Nordhorn, Germany: www.kulturhausnihz.de . Bobby and Sanna are also the founders of the Guitar Festival Nordhorn, Jewish Music Festival Nordhorn, Recorder Festival Nordhorn and Guitar Festival Romanshorn (Switzerland). Bobby also used to be the chairman and is a founding member of the Twents Gitaar Festival (Netherlands) and the Valais Guitar Week (Switzerland). Bobby Rootveld plays Savarez-strings!