Our music
We take up the threads of the Sephardic, Arabic and Occidental traditions and follow them through time and space to the present day.
In the footsteps of Saint Helen: a musical pilgrimage
A thrilling story about the patron Saint of Skövde, Saint Helen
Read more here ...
Qiyan's Tapestry: a programme based on medieval music.
We follow in the footsteps of the Qiyan, weaving a rich fabric of sounds and tonal pictures from their European tradition. Adding pearls from near and far and yarn coloured by a thousand years of history, the result becomes a glimmering multicultural tapestry.
Our Sephardic programme Las tres ermanikas:
When the Sephardic jews were driven out of their "Sepharad", Spain, in 1492, they had been living there since pre-Christian times. Many of them settled in the Ottoman Empire where they were received well. However a number of them also settled in, amongst other places, North Africa, America and western Europe.
During the Umayyaddynastin in Al-Andalus, or Moslem Spain (the district now known as Andelusia), the Jews had experienced a Golden Age during which their poetic and musical cultural expression had been enriched and refined through the amazing mixture of Arabian, Christian and Jewish influences they were surrounded by in that era.
The Sephardic Jews took their music and song with them into exile, including a wealth of secular songs sung in their own language, Ladino, a form of early Spanish. These were handed down from woman to woman, despite the disapproval of their male religious leaders.
We have these women's flouting of authority to thank for the unbroken Sephardic song tradition that we celebrate today! We do it in our way, just as our predecessors did – countless new elements have crept in during the centuries, both in texts and melodies.
And this is how we perform them...
Our Christmas special: The Rose and the Star
We present colourful and heartfelt Christmas music and Maria songs from different traditions: Nordic, Spanish, Syrian ...
Ya Mariyam el Bekr - Maria hymn from the Middle East
Eshet chayil mi yimtsa
verachok mip'ninim michra
Batach ba lév bala
veshalal lo yechsar
Gemalathu tov velora
kol yemé chayeha
darsha tsemer ufishtim
vata'as bechéfets kapeha
Haita kaoniot sochér
mimerchak tavi lachma
vetakam beod laila
vatitén teref leveitah vechok lena'roteiha
zamma sade vatikachéhu
mipri chapeiha nat'a kare
chagra beoz motneiha
vateaméts z'rooteha |
A worthy wife is more precious than corals.
Her husband trusts her,
he will not want for anything.
She does him good and no evil
every day of her life.
She makes arts and crafts from wool and flax.
Like the trade ship, she fetches the bread from far
away.
She gets up before the sun rises
and feeds her household and her servants.
She plants vineyards with her own hands.
She girds her loins, and her arms are strong. |
ett skott av en skicklig jägare