About
Lavalu (pseudonym of Marielle Woltring, (Cleveland, Ohio), April 9, 1979) is a Dutch composer and stage artist working in both the music sector and theater.
Woltring was born in Cleveland but grew up in Eindhoven and lives in Arnhem. She received classical piano lessons from the age of four. Towards the end of her puberty she discovered artists such as Radiohead, Róisín Murphy and Björk who inspired her to compose and write texts herself. She started as a singer-songwriter under her own name and in 1998 released the demo 7 years closed. This CD contains 3 songs (Ballerina, Too late to say sorry and Barbed wire), which Woltring had written for the 1994, 1995 and 1996 annual closures.
In 2004 she took the stage name Lavalu. In 2005, Lavalu won the Juttersfestival and released the Extended play Anxiety. In 2006 she won the Park Open Live Music Prize and played on Polderpop, among others. In November 2007 she released her second EP, Lavalu Now. She has performed at Noorderslag, in Paradiso and at the Montreux Jazz Festival. This was followed by the EP Now. Her debut album Hope or liquid courage was released in September 2009.
Lavalu continued as a singer-songwriter and released her 2nd studio album, Fighting Wildfires, in 2013, funded by the crowdfunding platform Voordekunst. On April 26, 2013 her first single from this album was released: Hey, the sun's here.
In 2014, Lavalu played the role of Gijsje in the musical De Witt of Oranje.
In 2017, Lavalu wrote the music for Het Pauperparadijs, a musical based on the true bibliographical book by Suzanna Jansen, with lyrics by Tom de Ket.
That same year she toured the Dutch theaters with her solo album "Solitary High". Parts two and three are under development.