top of page

Jacobine van Laar was born in The Netherlands and started her musical career as a flautist. During her final year at the Sweelinck Conservatoire in Amsterdam she started her vocal studies with Wout Oosterkamp at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. Jacobine continued her vocal studies at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London as a postgraduate student with Laura Sarti. After this she continued to study privately with Angela Hickey. She took part in masterclasses with the Wagnerian Danish tenor Stig Andersen. Jacobine performed both solo and in opera productions in many venues throughout the UK, The Netherlands and France. Jacobine enjoys making chamber music with members of the Royal Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra but equally loves working with local choirs as a soloist. Jacobine is open to recital, chamber music, opera and oratorio work. 

jacobine1.jpg

Concert Agenda

15 Oct 2023

3:00 pm

Songs of Desire

Wesendonck Lieder -  Wagner

The House of Life - Vaughan William 

Great Coxwell, Faringdon, Oxfordshire, UK

jacobine4.jpg

9 Oct 2023

0:00 pm

Dowland and Byrd

 with Viol Ensemble Ex Animo

Oxford, UK

jacobine4.jpg

8 Oct 2023

3:00 pm

Songs of Desire

Wesendonck Lieder -  Wagner

The House of Life - Vaughan William 

Wallingford, UK

jacobine4.jpg

20 May 2023

6:30 pm

Songs of Desire

Wesendonck Lieder -  Wagner

The House of Life - Vaughan William 

Faringdon, UK

jacobine4.jpg

5 Apr 2023

4:30 pm

Stabat Mater

Pergolesi

New Hinksey, Oxford, UK

jacobine4.jpg

19 Mar 2023

2:30 pm

Stabat Mater

Pergolesi

Markelo, Netherlands

jacobine4.jpg

18 Mar 2023

7:30 pm

Stabat Mater

Pergolesi

Goor, Netherlands

jacobine4.jpg

Concert Programmes

Jacobine has a versatile set of programmes that she can perform at your concert venue.  

desire.jpg

Songs of Desire

Songs of Desire is a song recital including the much loved Wesendonck Lieder by Richard Wagner, paired with Ralph Vaughan William’s song cycle The House of Life. The latter cycle was inspired by Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s eponymous sequence of poems, also known as The Kelmscott Love Sonnets, after nearby Kelmscott Manor, where Rossetti took joint tenancy with designer William Morris and his wife Jane. His relationship with Jane was not only the source of many of Rossetti's mid-to-late paintings, she was also the inspiration for The House of Life. Both song cycles evoke the mysteries of physical and spiritual love.

Music in Wartime

A special programme with songs written by composers whose lives and works were deeply affected by destruction and loss of many loved ones during World War I. Several poets and composer signed up during the war and ended in the trenches, where they wrote some of the most poignantly beautiful poetry and music in English literary and musical history.

poppy.jpg
womencomposers.jpg

Women in Music

A programme centered around works by forgotten and ignored women composers.

The Last Eccentrics

A lively programme including music, anecdotes and poetry by Lord Berners, Peter Warlock, Vaughan Williams and John Betjeman.

berners.jpg
jacobine4.jpg

A Night at the Opera

A night to remember with some of the most beautiful aria's in the history of opera. A perfectly balanced programme for any festive night out or gala event.

The Anglo-Dutch Connection

A programme featuring 20th Century British and Dutch composers. As a Dutch national with long standing ties to the UK, Jacobine enjoys exploring 20th Century British and Dutch composers and their sometimes lesser known body of work. When doing so she frequently stumbles upon interesting anecdotes, funny and surprising connections as well as a shared piece of history. The biggest reward of all this research is the rediscovery and the bringing back to life of some forgotten songs, which simply are too beautiful not to share.

nijmegen.jpg

recordings

Reviews

Music in Marlow

It was followed by more Pärt, the movingly romantic and deeply sad song "Es sang vor langen Jahren", in which Jacobine van Laar's sumptuous tone was accompanied by Dan Cornford on viola and Cormack Browne on violin.

Battle and Rye Observer

The second piece though was arguably the highlight of the second half. Jacobine van Laar’s melancholy and evocative soprano,  took the audience to new levels of emotion , yet without straying into sentimentality.

Tubantia
(Dutch newspaper)

'Jacobine made her voice sound warm-blooded in the famous Habanera from the opera Carmen by George Bizet and supple and round in Grieg's Cradle Song and Schubert Lieder.

James Conway, MD English Touring Opera

Jacobine van Laar has a particular, interesting voice that seems to me to have much beauty. The top is certainly very bright - sometimes a little surprisingly so - given the dark colours  in the middle of the voice. Sorry, sounds like I am talking about wine - but there is something of a complex wine in her voice, at least to me. 

Tony Biggin, composer

If Only moved me to tears.

Paul Hamburger, vocal coach Guildhall School of Music London

I have had the pleasure, and indeed the honour, of working with Jacobine van Laar during the last year at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She is an outstanding soprano of beautiful natural sound used with immaculate technique throughout a wide range of evenly produced notes both in sustained and florid passages. She is also capable of much variation in colour, thus enabling her to fully characterise individual composers as well as differing songs and arias. Jacobine is also highly intelligent, musical and hard-working, and equally at home in music of many styles and periods. She is equally good in singing lieder, melodies, oratorios and operas, and will, I am sure, make a considerable career. I should be happy to know that all possible assistance is being given to this exceptional artist.

Contact Info

Get in Touch

Jacobine lives in the Greater Oxford area in the United Kingdom

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube

Thanks for submitting!

bottom of page