Wouter Kellerman - Colour

Release: September 6th 2008

Kellerman's debut album ‘Colour’ has just been nominated for a SAMA (South African Music Award, the South African equivalent of the Grammys) in the ‘Best Instrumental Album’ category.

It is a crossover album that contains mostly original music. The album is produced by Mauritz Lotz and the voices of Nianell, Veronique, Jolette Odendaal and others can be heard on the CD. Kellerman mixed the album in collaboration with Husky Hoskulds, who has won two Grammy awards (one for his work with Norah Jones) and has mixed artists like Tom Waits, Cheryl Crow, Elvis Costello and Susanna Baca.

“His music is all about passion and feel. Inspired by styles and cultures from around the world and here at home, Colour is a magnificent musical journey through African, Latin, Jazz, and Celtic sounds with Classical inspirations.

Kellerman's playing shows that the flute is a multi-faceted instrument that can be played with many different colours - from a beautiful classical tone to the jazzy and experimental flute, adding funky rhythmic sounds and special sounds that the flute can make by using the clapping of the pads or singing while playing, for example. Some songs have a beautiful melody, expressively played (Half Moon), and some have a funky rhythmic quality (Nqokoko). The music holds that rich combination of depth and simplicity. ”

Wouter Kellerman started playing the flute at the age of ten. In 1981 he appeared as soloist with the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra. He won the first prize in the RAU talent festival in 1982. Wouter was a member of the SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) Junior Orchestra from 1979 – 1983 and toured with them to South America in 1981. He was a member of the National Youth Orchestra from 1979 – 1985, the last year as Principle Flautist.

In 1990 Wouter won the second prize in the FLUFSA (Flute Federation of South Africa) flute competition. In 1997 he entered the Vienna International Music Competition, and was awarded the Perrenoud Foundation Prize.

He has traveled extensively to participate in Master Classes with the world's best teachers, including William Bennett, Peter Lukas Graf, Trevor Wye, Julius Baker and Susan Milan.

More recently Wouter has focused his attention on world music and has performed on four continents in the last year. Locally he has worked with artists such as J B Arthur, Nianell, Chris Chameleon, Mauritz Lotz and David Matamela.

Kellerman's flute can be heard on the soundtrack of the double Emmy award film 'Eye of the leopard’.

Links:
Artists Homepage

Wouter Kellerman at MySpace

Video