"A musical miracle from Leipzig"
Saarbrücker Zeitung, 12 April 2005

Founded in 1992 by erstwhile members of St Thomas’s Boys Choir in Leipzig, amarcord has since become one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles. amarcord’s hall-marks include a unique tone, breathtaking homogeneity, musical authenticity, and a good dose of charm and humour.

The musical activities of this young sextet centre around Mediaeval and Renaissance compositions along with collaborations with contemporary composers such as Bernd Franke, Ivan Moody, Sidney M. Boquiren, Marcus Ludwig, Siegfried Thiele and Dimitri Terzakis, all of whom have written pieces especially for amarcord. Its repertoire includes various thematic programmes ranging from madrigals and romantic compositions to a cappella arrangements of famous songs spanning all facets of vocal music.

Amarcord In 2002, the ensemble won the German Music Competition, having joined the ranks of the BA KJK (the cream of young musicians singled out by the German Music Council for special support) two years beforehand. In 2004, amarcord became the first group of singers to be awarded the Ensemble Prize at the Mecklenburg-West Pomerania Festival.

Attending master classes with the King’s Singers and the Hilliard Ensemble has given amarcord valuable stimulus over the years. Alongside the Gewandhaus Orchestra and St Thomas’s Boys Choir, amarcord is now one of the leading representatives of Leipzig’s music scene in Germany and abroad. amarcord regularly appears at important music festivals, and its frequent concert tours have taken the group not only all over Europe but also to North America - where it was enthusiastically received in cities like San Francisco, Washington, New York, Atlanta, Houston or Salt Lake City -, Australia and Southeast Asia.

Amarcord has set up a festival of vocal music in Leipzig known as ‘a cappella’, which in recent years has hosted such renowned performers as the Swingle Singers, the Huelgas Ensemble, Chanticleer and the Singphoniker. For more information about the festival, log on to www.a-cappella-festival.de.

amarcord’s CDs have been very successful. Nun komm der Heiden Heiland (Now come, saviour of the gentiles with Medieval and Renaissance Vocal Music for the Christmas Season),   Incessament (works by Pierre de la Rue  and Gregorian Chant from the Moosburg Gradual) and Hear the voice (featuring spiritual works from different centuries) won the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award  (CARA - called "a-cappella-Oscar"). Other releases include Insalata a cappella (sold out) featuring secular works from various centuries, an album of Christmas vocal music entitled In adventu Domini, and also And So It Goes, a selection of arrangements of rock and pop songs. Moreover, amarcord has recorded a CD for the German Music Competition Prizewinners’ Series containing works by Bach, Elgar, Poulenc, Grieg and Ludwig as well as folk songs.

amarcord’s first DVD, Sounds like Christmas, was released in 2004. Made in conjunction with EuroArts and ZDF, it includes appearances by mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and jazz trumpeter Tomas Stanko with his group.

www.amarcord.de