amarcord starts the new season with the release of the CD „Folks & Tales“ and a concert tour to New York and Houston. Over the 20 years of their career, the vocal ensemble from Leipzig has collected the world’s most beautiful folk songs in more than 1,600 concerts around the globe. A selection of popular, traditional tunes, which animate to sing along, features on the new album „Folks & Tales“ by the two-time ECHO prize winners. This album is a very intimate trip from Cuba via Ghana, Russia and Thailand to Japan and Australia. The compositions are perfectly adapted to the five vocalists and feature influences from pop, jazz and classical music. They awaken the audience’s sense of wanderlust and capture traditions and tales of various nations – presented in the inimitable amarcord fashion of vocal brilliancy, homogeneous, warm sounds, and a healthy amount of charm and humour.

amarcord will tour the US from 5 to 16 April and perform in New York and Houston. The two performances in the exclusive series for historical music in The Cloisters (7 April) have become a tradition. After another gig in New York, the vocal quintet performs at the Bach Society in Houston, the partner city of Leipzig. The programme features musical gems of the St Thomas Choir. Another trip to New York is scheduled for this summer – the ensemble will make a guest appearance at Ken David Masur’s Chelsea Festival from 17 to 19 June.

amarcord is valued for its versatility. The quintet switches effortlessly between chants from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Baroque, European Romanticism, and Modernity, and even adaptations of folk songs and jazz standards. The ensemble has been awarded with the International Classical Music Award (ICMA) in the category „Early Music“ for the first recorded performance of two Gregorian masses from the gradual of the St Thomas Church in Leipzig, which is one of the most important preserved collections of medieval choir manuscripts. Two ECHO Classical Prizes and three Contemporary A Cappella Recording awards, the „oscar of a cappella“, are proof of amarcord’s successful career.

„Folk & Tales“ is their 19th CD release. amarcord’s outstanding productions include „Zu S Thomas“ („At St. Thomas“) with two Gregorian masses from the Thomas gradual of the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, „Die Motetten“ (SONY) („The Motets“) with the Lautten Compagney, „Das Lieben bringt groß‘ Freud!“ (MDG) („Love Brings Great Happiness“) and „Rastlose Liebe – ein Spaziergang durch das romantische Leipzig“ („Restless Love – A Walk through Romantic Leipzig“).

www.amarcord.de