Classical and folk join forces for a thrilling celebration of dance, in this joyfully unconventional programme masterminded and conducted by much-loved Finnish violin pioneer Pekka Kuusisto.
Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony dances its way from start to blazing finish, propelled along by driving rhythms, and brimming over with energy, passion and bounding positivity.
Kuusisto intersperses the Symphony’s four movements with a specially curated collection of folk tunes that he plays with his friends and colleagues in Danish/Swedish trio Dreamers’ Circus, injecting a distinctively 21st-century freshness into trad music from across Europe.
Pekka Kuusisto Visiting Artist Chair kindly supported by The Honorary Consulate of Finland, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The ambitiously inventive Nordic trio, Dreamers’ Circus, are one of the most talked about acts in the acoustic realm right now. They mine their solid backgrounds in traditional and roots music to present a genre-bending amalgam of folk sensitivity, jazz-tinged improvisation and classical complexity distilled through an openness to popular music influences. Dreamers’ Circus display virtuosic and incendiary musical ability across a range of instruments that includes fiddle, accordion, piano and cittern and with a resolutely contemporary approach they have taken the new Nordic music scene by storm.
“They’re world class. Now the world needs to hear them” – Sing Out
“Charisma, talent and a powerful performance onstage” – Songlines
“Dreamers’ Circus does for Nordic folk music what Astor Piazolla and the tango nuevo did for Argentinian folk music” – Politiken Denmark.
