We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Vivienne Aerts a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Vivienne, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

A project that has meaning to me is my latest album ‘Typuhthâng’ [pronounce: Type-of-thing] which features 100 female musicians who recorded on my original songs. Because of my work with Vervool, a bespoke multi-sensory experience launched with my pastry chef husband, Ted Steinebach, fans will receive a bar of “Original Beans Femmes de Virunga Chocolate” with every purchase of the album. The Femmes de Virunga are a cacao farm collective of 1500 women in Virunga State Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo who are managing, operating and growing a cocoa farm and tree nursery. The collective, initiated and supported in 2008 by Original Beans, gives women the tools and opportunities to overcome extreme hardship and political unrest. I was inspired by their passion for sustainability, community and rehabilitation and I decided to feature this chocolate as well as many of my female musicians friends as I could.

I wanted to use my music to raise awareness of this project. I wanted to use my music, not to inspire charity but to match their entrepreneurial spirit and generate business, “Let’s make an album that sells their chocolate.” And of course, chocolate and music are a bit of a magical combination, right?

I wanted to make an album by women in support of women. But, I think, I made an album that is about everybody. This is about connecting people and making the world just a little bit better. I think this album has a synergy, where one plus one equals three. It is bigger than the sum of its parts and it is bigger than me. I hope it can help people by channeling positivity in a sometimes cynical world.

So, the songs featured in ‘Typuhthâng’ feature women in every role of the project including performing, recording, arranging, mixing, and mastering. I aimed to create a larger collective awareness about sustainability and female empowerment, and how we can work together to make the world a better place. The album has 3 sampled soundscapes and 6 original songs with arrangements by Zahili Gonzalez Zamora, Ines Velasco Montiel, Ga Young Bae, Linnea Lundgren, Camila Meza, Mariel Roberts, and myself as well as performances by 100 female musicians from over 40 countries.

Making a Scene magazine put it like this: “The aim of the project is essentially two-fold – to promote awareness of sustainability and to give females a sense of self-appreciation and empowerment, all through light-hearted music that is ethereal, at times in the form of lullabies, and at others a blend of jazz, electronica, and classical, intended to be a multi-sensory experience.”

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a Dutch New York-based vocalist, conductor, a composer with a focus on electronics, chocolate, and multi-sensory experience design as well as a clinical psychologist and a faculty member at Berklee College of Music where I have been instrumental in building a new generation of performers who are not only skilled musicians but also mentally and physically healthy individuals.

As a musician, my collaborators have included some of the most iconic names in the world of jazz. I use synthesizers, live-looping and iPad apps and my edible ‘experience’ events were the roots of my multi-disciplinary approach to the making of my new album, ‘Typuhthâng’, which features women and chocolate.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

As a performer I guess my goal is to create an experience and to empower individuals to connect with their strength. For a long time, I have wanted to create something positive in this world, to be a ‘light’. This was a desire nurtured in me by my parents who are always there for their community, who volunteer whenever they can and are a positive and inspiring force. I think this is represented in my music, by transforming my feelings into song and connecting with people of various backgrounds on a deep and personal level with a light-hearted approach. My music contains themes of self-appreciation and the ability to create your own path in life.

As a current faculty at Berklee and in masterclasses all over the world my focus lies in empowering musicians to find their inner voices, transform their minds, and allow their talents to flourish. My creative journey is also deeply rooted in a mission to bridge the worlds of psychology and music. With a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and a background in music as a vocalist, conductor, and educator, my mission is to utilize the power of music and I am dedicated to using music to facilitate personal growth and healing, especially in these challenging times. My techniques have proven to be incredibly effective and life-changing, revolutionizing the way musicians approach their craft.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

The key to growth is to be open to experiences, and daring to create. To stay open, I’m trying to read a book per week on many different topics. During my classes at Berklee I’m showing these different mind/body resources to my students, books, audio and video ranging from Thich Nhat Hanh, Moojiji, Susan Piver, Kristin Neff, Eckhart Tolle, Wim Hof, Rick Ruben, Jon Kabatt-Zinn. In music, classic books like ‘Free Play (Stephen Nachmanovitch) and ‘Inner Game of Music’ (Barry Green) are still relevant. I believe if we learn to become our own best friend and tune into our humanity, we can create a better world for everyone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vivienneaerts.nl/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vieffertje/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VivienneAertsFanpage
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivienne-aerts-b8905617/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/VivienneAerts
• Other: Bandcamp : https://vivienne.bandcamp.com/album/typuhth-ng Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/album/4jk15RVUe9aI6eMOjj6SiA Itunes : https://music.apple.com/us/album/typuhth%C3%A2ng/1653284208

Image Credits
Trudy Giordano Natalia Olbinski