All-Norwegian Nordic Voices sextet performs at Gretna Music

'How-do-they-do-that-with-their-voices' sound featured in Feb. 14 concert

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Nordic Voices sextet

ELIZABETHTOWN, PA (02/03/2015)(readMedia)-- It's been a half a dozen or more years since Carl Kane, artistic coordinator for Gretna Music at Elizabethtown College, first heard the unique sound of Nordic Voices. He remembers being immediately impressed.

"It's a how-do-they-do-that-with-their-voices type of sound," Kane said the of the ensemble's wide range of techniques, from ordinary classical sounds to Mongolian overtone singing. "It's contemporary Norwegian mixed with medieval standards. The frisson between the two is fascinating."

Nordic Voices, an a cappella sextet, that the Washington Post calls 'mesmerizing,' brings a compelling program of renaissance and medieval motets and modern masterpieces to Leffler Chapel and Performance Center at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, as a part of Gretna Music's 2014-2015 concert series.

Kane said the all-Norwegian group's sound stuck in his mind and, when Gretna Music decided to do a season of vocal music, he "thought it was time to bring them out."

The internationally acclaimed ensemble -- Tone E. Braaten, soprano; Ingrid Hanken, soprano; Ebba Rydh, mezzo-soprano; Per Kristian Amundrd, tenor; Frank Havry, baritone; and Trond Olav Reinholdtsen, bass -- formed in 1996 from six graduates of the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Norwegian Academy of Opera, who, in addition to their singing backgrounds, have a broad range of experience from choral conducting to teacher training and composition.

Nordic Voices, supported by the Arts Council Norway and the State Department of Culture, has five recordings -- Sense and Nonsense from 2002, Reges Terrae, 2007; Djonki Don, 2008; Lamentations, 2009; and most recently, Himmelkvad recorded in 2012 – and tours have included Oslo, Norway, Taiwan, Stockholm, German, France, Greece and the United States.

Tickets -- $22/$17; ages 26 and under half price; ages 18 and under $1 – available by calling 717-361-1508 or gretnamusic.org.

Contact: Carl Kane at 717-361-1508 or kanec@etown.edu

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Elizabethtown College, located in historic Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is a private coed institution offering more than four dozen liberal arts, fine and performing arts, science and engineering, business, communications and education degrees. Learn more: www.etown.edu/about/

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