Following a sold-out concert at PAARD 2023 and a highly anticipated live album, Tess Merlot and nine musicians from the Residentie Orkest are continuing Residentie Orkest collaboration in a new, more intimate format. With a smaller ensemble but the same musicality and expressiveness, the focus remains on the versatility of French chanson. The Oostkerk is now known for its successful French chanson concerts featuring Gerard Alderliefste, Filip Jordens, and Tess Merlot!

In recent years, Tess Merlot has emerged as one of the most striking chansonnières in the Low Countries. Her love for the genre is clearly audible, yet always with her own signature style: personal, direct, and unadorned. It is precisely in this smaller ensemble setting that this approach truly shines. The combination of her voice with the Residentie Orkest, reduced to an ensemble of nine top musicians, creates a performance that can be both intimate and emotional as well as exuberant and electrifying. Or, as Tess puts it: “We whisper and we blaze, and everything in between.”

Well-known classics by artists such as Charles Aznavour, Jacques Brel, and Edith Piaf are interspersed with Tess’s own compositions, such as “Rien à perdre,” “Mon Paris,” and “Une Passante.” Old and new songs flow seamlessly into one another. A concert for lovers of the French chanson, but just as much for those who want to rediscover it: intimate, lively, and straight from the heart.

Read more about the concert here.