WEDNESDAY 23 JULY | 7PM
Unprecedented in the musical world, Sjaella is an a capella group of six young women from Leipzig whose beautifully blended voices and engaging manner hold audiences spellbound around the globe.
Sjaella is an a capella group of six young women from Leipzig whose beautifully blended voices and engaging manner hold audiences spellbound around the globe. Sjaella has a multi-faceted repertoire thanks to its vocal combination, which is underrepresented in the musical world.
Uniform yet individual, gentle yet robust, precise yet free-flowing – this versality is what Sjaella’s ethereal and otherworldly sound is all about. Sjaella has been a fixture on the universal vocal music scene for years, performing concerts at renowned festivals, and winning first prize at many competitions. The ensemble has recently been on concert tours to South Africa, Belgium, Spain, and Norway.
To brighten the scene with their rich tone, and to expand the range of works available for women’s choirs, the singers have been working closely with composers for many years. They combine new works with old music, and devote their attention to folk songs from different cultures.
In this program, Sjaella explores the many facets of natural phenomena and mythological stories by uniting early and contemporary music with folk songs from northern Europe. The contrasting tonal language invites the listener to interpret sounds of nature in connection with their place of belonging.
A selection of picturesque Baroque arias from Henry Purcell’s semi-opera The Fairy Queen forms the basis of the first half of the concert, contrasted with compositions from today. With French Renaissance composer Clément Janequin and contemporary American composer Caroline Shaw, we hear the birds twittering. Following Purcell’s song cycle of the four seasons, we hear the ice singing in Crystallized, by the young Meredi. And Hypophysis, a co-composition of Sjaella and Shara Nova, gives a voice to all the little hormones and follicles present in the female body during a monthly cycle.
In the second half, Sjaella merges different cultures with their own and explores what connects people to the songs of their homeland. Which dreams unite them? And how does nature find its way into traditional tunes? Stories of supernatural beings, nordic landscapes, love, loss, and reunion come together in folk songs from Latvia, Norway, Ireland, Germany, and Finland. Characteristic arrangements, vocal variation, elements of performance, and the sound of rarely spoken languages reveal the mysteries of each culture. And while discovering among the branches, one might feel the deepening of their roots.
PROGRAMME
Among the Branches
A Bird’s Prelude, HENRY PURCELL
. from The Fairy Queen, Arr, Sjaella
Le Rossignol, CLEMENT JANEQUIN
. from Le chant des oiseaux, Arr. Susanne Blache
Dolce Cantavi, CAROLINE SHAW
. T. Francesca Turina Bufalini Contessa di Stupinigi
Thus the ever grateful spring (Spring) Here’s the summer, sprightly, gay (Summer) See my many coloured fields (Autumn) Now winter comes slowly (Winter), PURCELL
. from The Fairy Queen, Act 4, T. aer A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare Arr. Gregor Meyer
Crystallized, MERDI
Hypothesis, SJAELLA
. T. Felicitas Erben, Shara Nova
– INTERVAL –
Jōda, jōda, pǟva, juokšõ
. Livonian Herding Song, Arr. Raivis Misjun
Huldra
. Norwegian Traditional, Arr. Håvard Gravdal
Our Wedding Day
. Irish Traditional, Arr. Michael McGlynn, Franziska Eberhardt
Cúnnla, McGLYNN
Our Wedding Day
. Irish Traditional, Arr. Michael McGlynn, Franziska Eberhardt
Son ar Chistr
. Breton Drinking Song, Arr. Michael Eimann
Ach Elslein, liebes Elselein
. German Traditional, Arr. Helene Erben, Christoph Göbel
Kuulin äänen, KALLBERG
. Arr. Laura Jēkabsone
Wednesday, 23 July, 7pm
Snow Concert Hall
Canberra Grammer School
40 Monaro Crescent, Red Hill
ACT 2603
SJAELLA
Their shared roots reach back to an age when emotions can flow unhindered. Their connections are deep, their enjoyment unlimited, and their inner strength grows wrapped in tenderness. Sjaella is the soul of the women who appear together on stage and have not lost a child-like experience of the world. Individuality and community come together as friends, in a playful meeting on an equal footing. There is movement, language, noise and sound, with shapes and images. There are bodies and faces, space and freedom, focus and shared breath. It is all of this that Sjaella experiences and seeks to share with the audience in a constant exchange of energy.
The voyage of discovery began for these artists in 2005, and it has now taken them around the world. For years now Sjaella has been a fixture on the universal vocal music scene, with concerts at renowned festivals: Rheingau Musik Festival, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, Mosel Musikfestival, Musikfest ION, and many more. The group has also won many prizes in competitions, including the festival Tampereen Sävel 2015 in Finland. The ensemble has been on concert tours to Jordan, Azerbaijan, Hungary, South Africa, Belgium, Spain and Norway, and performed at famed concert halls like the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Wiener Musikverein, the Wiener Konzerthaus, and the Palace of Arts (Müpa) in Budapest.
Sjaella has a multi-faceted repertoire thanks to its vocal combination, which is underrepresented in the musical world. To brighten the scene with their rich tone, and to expand the range of works available for women’s choirs, the singers have been working closely with composers for many years. They combine new works with old music, and devote their attention to folk songs from different cultures, while also harbouring a penchant for jazz. Some of their forays into a musical focus have been honoured by the music world. The album “Preisung” (2013, querstand) was nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award, and “Meridiane – NORD” (2018, Raumklang) won the American CARA Award for Best Folk/World Album.
Every journey, every encounter, every collaboration with international artists opens new doors for Sjaella, inside and out. Different musical spaces open up, and worlds of ideas are discovered, just waiting to be revealed by these six young women. They see it as their task to rethink what we think we know, to find new sounds, and to bring all this into an artistic context. They consciously gave this intention a name in 2021 with “Origins”. This album, released on Outhere Music and praised by the French newspaper Le Monde, is like life itself: a cycle made up of many smaller ones, which are shaped so differently that one often wonders how they could be connected when viewed up close. However, when viewed as a whole, the meaning becomes clear.
