SJAELLA
Vocal SEXTET -LEIPZIG GERMANY
The vocal magic of these six voices has enthralled audiences in many of the renowned concert halls worldwide. And on their second Australian Tour with performances at Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Recital Center and QPAC, Sjaella are returning to The Music Estuary in Ballina.
This is a unique opportunity to experience their perfect blended voices, extraordinary interconnectedness and engaging performance in the more intimate space of St Mary’s Church.
In their own words, ‘Sjaella is the soul of the women who appear together on stage and have not lost a child-like experience of the world’.
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.
DATE & TIME
SUNDAY, 6 July
5:00 – 6:30 PM
TICKETS
GENERAL $35
CONCESSION $30
Viola Blache
Soprano
Marie Fenske
Soprano
Franziska Eberhardt
Soprano
Marie Charlotte Seidel
Mezzo-Soprano
Luisa Klose
Alto
HELENE Erben
Alto
SJAELLA – BIOGRAPHY
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.
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.