OperaD NiroMovie
Posted on | February 15, 2014 | No Comments
Tamara Williamson, Jacqueline Brooks and D Niro Perform Live on Closing Night of the 2012 Royal Horse Show
Posted on | November 24, 2012 | No Comments
Devon Freestyle 2012 D-Niro and Jacqueline Brooks
Posted on | October 6, 2012 | No Comments
Jacqueline Brooks and D Niro performing their new all-Canadian artists’ freestyle.
From Dressage News (read original here):
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
When Jacqueline Brooks rode her D Niro to a new freestyle, a standing room only crowd of 5,000 spectators at Dressage at Devon World Cup event agreed with the judges awarding her the highest score she had ever received outside of her native Canada.
Although Jacquie took a risk performing the new freestyle in public for the first time on such a big stage–possibly the largest audience at a non-championship competition in North America–she and the 13-year-old Swedish Warmblood gelding (D-Day x Alitalia x Napolean 625) achieved what she and Tamara Williamson she teamed with to create the freestyle could have hoped for. A video of the performance can be found here: youtube.com
The result for her and the horse Jacquie bought in February, 2011, was the highest so far in the World Cup North American League standings after three of 10 events in the United States to qualify for the Final in Gothenberg, Sweden next April.
Jacquie said that making the freestye was her main focus since returning from London after competing in her second straight Olympics. She rode Gran Gesto in the 2008 Games.
Tamara Williamson, a Briton with a classical music upbringing transplanted to Canada, was both a dressage riding student of Jacquie’s and her first customer when she started her company, Kurboom in 2002.
“I was lucky enough to go to the Olympics and watch the freestyles this summer,” Tamara told dressage-news.com. “I came away with a clear idea of what I wanted to do. Something dramatic and clever at the same time. It struck me that the world of freestyles was getting a bit too Hollywood epic and I wanted to just take it back a notch.
“So I approached Jacquie with an idea. I love working with Jacquie. She always loves to try new ideas, and has a very musical ear.
“I wanted to make a Canadian kür celebrating some of Canada’s finest songsters.
“Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah,’ one of the greatest songs ever written was a nice place to start. The Joni Mitchell ‘Big Yellow Taxi.’ a folk anthem through the ages; Neil Young’s ‘Heart of Gold,’ and then for the intro ‘Spirit of the West, Home for a Rest’ one of the greatest drinking songs ever! All Canadian! All recognizable.”
Three weeks before Devon, Tamara and her long time drummer friend Morgan Doctor and producer/engineer Mitchell Girio got together at The Slaughter House studio in downtown Toronto.
“I made a map of the test making sure each part was mirrored and then I literally sang section by section how the music was going to work with the gaits of the horse and the pattern,” Tamara explained.
“It was hard and everyone had headaches but we got through making all the drum tracks the first day. Then we just kept adding layers but at the end of each session I would go over and Jacquie would ride it to make sure it was all working.
“She also would make choices about how much instrumentation she wanted.
“We all agreed it was sounding pretty good with just drums, guitar, bass and vocals. But we sent it off to violinist Karen Graves and she added some spectacular fiddle and string arrangements.”
Jacquie said that they wanted to play to D Niro’s strengths, particularly his “internal metronome” that showed off piaffe and passage.
“We emailed the finished kür to the sound man in Devon on the Thursday–two days before the performance,” Tamara said.
The compilation was named “Poets and Dreamers.”
Before relocating to Toronto in 1993, Tamara formed a series of small, independent bands in London. She has created and produced several albums, recording for a major label, and toured extensively in North America and Europe, including supporting Jewel and Oasis.
She likes mixing her passions of riding dressage and creating music.
“I am interested in making original music or kürs from scratch,” she said. “I am tired of editing together pre-existing music which can only work up to a point. When you create a kür for the horse that’s when the artistry comes into play. I honestly think Jacquie would not have won on Saturday with an edited kür. You could hear it in the way the crowd responded–they are ready for more.”
Jacqueline Brooks qualifies for the Olympics with ORIGINAL KUR
Posted on | July 6, 2012 | No Comments
ORIGINAL MUSIC AVAILABLE BY KURBOOM.
In 2009 Tamara Williamson (KURBOOM) made an original Grand Prix kur for Jacqueline Brooks and Gran Guesto. The piece entitled “Sam’s song” earned them scores in the 70′s and many first place scores in Canada and USA.
“Sam’s Song” was also used by Balmoral her next Grand Prix horse and is now being used by DeNiro and been submitted to the 2012 Olympic Games. The versatility and strength of this kur has made it a substantial backbone in the Brooks freestyle program.
Tamara Williamson is KURBOOM, and is a composer/producer and freestyle designer. She has release 3 major label albums and 4 independent albums in Canada, toured all over the world, her music has been likened to Feist and Kate Bush. Voted fourth best concert of the year just after Bjork 2001 (NOW magazine) and dubbed Godmother of Indie by EYE magazine. Tamara was at the for-front of alternative music during the 90′s and onwards. Her band played with Groups such as Oasis, Jewel, Feist and Talk Talk and Tamara sang on many stages including Maple Leaf Gardens opening for the Tragically Hip. Writing all her own material and producing records for other artist she is known for her creativity and respected for her songwriting and artistry in production. Tamara works with live musicians and likes to mix the studio with live performances. Producing kurs that sound full and rich with original theme’s that bring out the best in a horses movement.
Tamara’s music is available here at cdbaby.com and itunes.
In a world of more licensing laws and copyright problems Kurboom is please to now offer affordable ORIGINAL kur’s.
OWN YOUR MUSIC!
Email tamara@kurboom.com for a conversation about this and quotes.
Tags: canadian dressage team > dressage music > Jacqueline Brooks > original kurs
ASHLEY HOLZER & JACQUELINE BROOKS at the 2011 Royal Winter Fair.
Posted on | January 10, 2012 | No Comments
Kurboom freestyles come First and Third at the 2011 Royal Winter Fair.
Ashley Holzer riding her debut freestyle on her beautiful new horse Breaking Dawn. She won with 74% with her first Kurboom Freestyle finished only days before. It was a really special moment for me and Kurboom….I’ll never forget it!
http://calgarydressage.com/top-freestyle-at-2011-royal-winter-fair-ashley-hozer/
As for Jacqueline Brooks I think she won four CDIs this summer with her Alexander freestyle…This is from her web sight “Last Sunday afternoon, at the Palgrave CDI 3*, when Gran Gesto heard the opening bars to his “Alexander” freestyle, he knew it was time to dance. And dance he did, winning the Grand Prix Freestyle, his third in a row, with a score of 70.96%.” As it stands at the end of 2011 Gran Guesto is leading the points board for Canada!!!!
Kurboom was also delighted to make a freestyle for Roberta Morris who rode for Canada’s Dressage Pan Am Silver Medal Team.
Naomi Gagnon qualified and represented Canada at the 2011 Kentucky Young Riders Championships.
Kurboom also made the music for the Royal Winter Fair 2011 dressage under lights. Choosing music from Sci-fi and Spaceship movies … it was a fun exhibition ride.
Thanks to all the other Kurboomer’s out their….Here comes 2012!!
Cornerstone Summer Festival 2010
Posted on | July 23, 2010 | No Comments
Ute Busse wins the GP freestyle with her new kur at Cornerstone Summer Festival 2010 ! You can’t go wrong with the Rocky theme.
Aachen CHIO 2010
Posted on | July 23, 2010 | No Comments
Belinda Trussell and Anton come 12th in the freestyle in Aachen CHIO 2010.
Belinda scored 72 riding her new kur to the music of Riverdance.
Noémie and Dutch
Posted on | July 9, 2010 | No Comments
Noémie (and her Dutch horse- see picture attached) will represent Canada at the North American Junior & Young Rider Championship in Kentucky at the end of July..
Belinda Trussell and Anton Take Second Victory in WEF
Posted on | March 21, 2010 | No Comments
Trussell and Anton, a 10-year-old Saxony gelding by Antaeus xx Melit, performed to a freestyle choreographed by Tamara Williamson to the music of “Riverdance.” She commented, “It’s fun and I like it. It’s really upbeat, and I want to get the crowd involved in the kur, so that it’s exciting and you can’t wait for the next movement. I hope that that’s what it portrayed. It is really fun to ride to the music.”
while Jacqueline Brooks (CAN) and Balmoral, owned by Mary and Eric Brooks and John and Anne Welch, were third with a score of 71.550%.
2009 Royal Winter Fair
Posted on | November 16, 2009 | No Comments
Jacqueline Brooks got the crowd clapping along at this years Royal. Her new kur is an upbeat fun medley which was only completed by Kurboom 5 days before the show!!! Great Job Jacky!
I’d like to thanks Evi Pracht for asking me to do the music for this years western reining demo at the 2009 Royal Winter Fair. I had a blast!
Gillian Sutherland and Harvey Stephen’s did the music proud…Awesome…
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