Past Programs
Choirs and Choral - 2008
Trio Kavkasia (repeat of 3/1/08)
30/10/2008
Trio Kavkasia's CD, The Fox and the Lion, includes rare songs from Georgia's unique vocal culture.
The US-based trio of Alan Gasser, Stuart Gelzer and Carl Linich formed the group in 1994 shortly after first hearing Georgian vocal music - its dense and powerful harmonies affecting them like a jolt of electricity. The three parts in a Georgian song relate to each other in unusual ways, making use of harmonies that are closer together than Western ears are used to hearing.
The trio has made extended trips to Georgia, where music remains a part of daily life. In 1997 each of the trio was made a State Prize Laureate and was awarded the Silver Medal of the Georgian Ministry of Culture ‘for profound knowledge of the folk music of Georgia and his role in its popularisation around the world’. The songs on The Fox and the Lion were gathered from various arcane sources and include toasts, love songs, Christmas carols, soldiers’ songs, wedding songs, hymns and historical songs.
Israeli Andalusian Orchestra (First Broadcast on 31/3/2008)
26/09/2008
With the soaring, inspiring voices of Emil Zrihan and Haim Luc, and an instrumentation that mixes Western strings with instruments played in North Africa, the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra’s CD Jerusalem is a powerful, celebratory recording.
This music reached Israel when Sephardic Jews immigrated from North Africa in the 1950s and 1960s, but in Israel’s early years their music was marginalised due to Israeli society’s focus on developing its own culture. Ironically, the massive immigration of Russian Jews, including large numbers of musicians, especially violinists, facilitated the formation of a large, Arabic-style orchestra. Moroccan-born musicologist and founder of the Andalusian Orchestra, Dr. Avi Eilam-Amzaleg, helped pull together the Moroccan and Soviet-born musicians by arranging and notating the arrangements for the Orchestra and composing many pieces based on traditional Moroccan-Jewish sources. But the singers are, with their big, generous and inspiring voices, the stars of this CD.
This Show Is About People (First Broadcast on 20/2/2008)
22/09/2008
This Show is About People is the CD soundtrack to the music-dance-theatre collaboration featuring excellent Bulgarian music sung by Trio Pippero.
Trio Pippero are Bulgarian-born Sylvia Entcheva, long-time Balkan music singer Mara Kiek and Jane Birmingham. The intersection of the ancient music and the contemporary theme of the production (which premiered at the Melbourne International Festival 2007 and the Sydney Festival 2008) create something new entirely.
Gorani (First Broadcast 7/4/08)
15/09/2008
Because the nine singers of Gorani have been chasing the unusual harmonies of Georgia and Bulgaria since they started in Melbourne in 1992, they’ve called their new CD Chasing Harmonies.
The group were drawn together at a Bulgarian song workshop for men run by Bagryana Popov. Internationally-renowned Georgian ethnomusicologist and all-around good guy, Dr. Joseph Jordania joined the group shortly after migrating to Australia in 1995, and Bulgarian singer Ian Vitcheff joined in 2001. The new record of Bulgarian and Georgian choral music is drawn from studio and live recordings made in Australia and Bulgaria.
Perunika Trio
25/06/2008
Introducing The Perunika Trio is the debut CD from the London-based trio of Bulgarian female singers, Eugenia Georgieva, Victoria Mancheva and Victoria Evstatieva.
The three tertiary educated singers split off into their own group after meeting through the London Bulgarian Choir. With occasional minimal backing, the trio sing a selection of Bulgarian and Macedonian songs with their distinctive drones and harmonies.
Gorani
07/04/2008
Because the nine singers of Gorani have been chasing the unusual harmonies of Georgia and Bulgaria since they started in Melbourne in 1992, they’ve called their new CD Chasing Harmonies.
The group were drawn together at a Bulgarian song workshop for men run by Bagryana Popov. Internationally-renowned Georgian ethnomusicologist and all-around good guy, Dr. Joseph Jordania joined the group shortly after migrating to Australia in 1995, and Bulgarian singer Ian Vitcheff joined in 2001. The new record of Bulgarian and Georgian choral music is drawn from studio and live recordings made in Australia and Bulgaria.
Israeli Andalusian Orchestra
31/03/2008
With the soaring, inspiring voices of Emil Zrihan and Haim Luc, and an instrumentation that mixes Western strings with instruments played in North Africa, the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra’s CD Jerusalem is a powerful, celebratory recording.
This music reached Israel when Sephardic Jews immigrated from North Africa in the 1950s and 1960s, but in Israel’s early years their music was marginalised due to Israeli society’s focus on developing its own culture. Ironically, the massive immigration of Russian Jews, including large numbers of musicians, especially violinists, facilitated the formation of a large, Arabic-style orchestra. Moroccan-born musicologist and founder of the Andalusian Orchestra, Dr. Avi Eilam-Amzaleg, helped pull together the Moroccan and Soviet-born musicians by arranging and notating the arrangements for the Orchestra and composing many pieces based on traditional Moroccan-Jewish sources. But the singers are, with their big, generous and inspiring voices, the stars of this CD.
Rachel Unthank and the Winterset
19/03/2008
On The Bairns, Newcastle folk group Rachel Unthank and the Winterset put original arrangements to a selection of mostly traditional songs, sung in strong Geordie accents.
The core of the band is Rachel & Becky Unthank; two sisters born and bred in the North-East, and on the Tyneside tradition of sea songs, border songs and clog dancing. Mum and dad Unthank are both singers and Rachel (29) & Becky (22) have been going to and performing at folk clubs and festivals for as long as they can remember. Belinda O’Hooley, whose day job was playing piano in nursing homes, but had no experience with English traditional music, brings an original slant to the songs.
The Blind Boys of Alabama
18/03/2008
On their new CD, Down in New Orleans, The Blind Boys of Alabama take a new direction by recording in New Orleans with Allen Toussaint, Dixieland group The Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the horn-heavy Hot 8 Brass band.
The Blind Boys, who have been together since 1939, innovate by taking gospel music in new directions - they have performed in Broadway shows and for the past decades they’ve been bringing secular songs into the Gospel repertoire, with tasteful, unusual backing. Jimmy Carter said that the group had always wanted to record in New Orleans and now seemed like the right time to do it. ‘I can’t get up on a ladder with a hammer and nails, but me and the guys can sing inspirational songs that will help lift people’s hearts while they hammer nails’, he said.
This Show Is About People (Trio Pippero)
20/02/2008
This Show is About People is the CD soundtrack to the music-dance-theatre collaboration featuring excellent Bulgarian music sung by Trio Pippero.
Trio Pippero are Bulgarian-born Sylvia Entcheva, long-time Balkan music singer Mara Kiek and Jane Birmingham. The intersection of the ancient music and the contemporary theme of the production (which premiered at the Melbourne International Festival 2007 and the Sydney Festival 2008) create something new entirely.
Trio Kavkasia (repeat of 3/9/07)
03/01/2008
Trio Kavkasia's CD, The Fox and the Lion, includes rare songs from Georgia's unique vocal culture.
The US-based trio of Alan Gasser, Stuart Gelzer and Carl Linich formed the group in 1994 shortly after first hearing Georgian vocal music - its dense and powerful harmonies affecting them like a jolt of electricity. The three parts in a Georgian song relate to each other in unusual ways, making use of harmonies that are closer together than Western ears are used to hearing.
The trio has made extended trips to Georgia, where music remains a part of daily life. In 1997 each of the trio was made a State Prize Laureate and was awarded the Silver Medal of the Georgian Ministry of Culture ‘for profound knowledge of the folk music of Georgia and his role in its popularisation around the world’. The songs on The Fox and the Lion were gathered from various arcane sources and include toasts, love songs, Christmas carols, soldiers’ songs, wedding songs, hymns and historical songs.
