Grammy-nominated, internationally acclaimed artist Ute Lemper's collaboration with renowned best-selling author Paulo Coelho, The 9 Secrets, release on earlier this month on February 12 via Steinway & Sons. In celebration, Lemper will perform the piece in its entirety in a fully staged production at Symphony Space in New York City on May 13.
The album presents a song cycle composed and sung by Lemper, set to words by Coelho, who is actually featured on two of the tracks, from his 2012 novel, Manuscript Found in Accra -- the thematic content of which may be encapsulated in the lines, "After lyingundiscovered for over 700 years, a manuscript holding the answers to questions about life and humanity is unearthed. Simple questions about our lives torn between happiness and sorrow and defined by hope, intelligence and desire to love as much as the capacity to hate and destroy."
Recorded and produced by Lemper in New York, the album features an international lineup of leading musicians including Gil Goldstein, who plays accordion and contributes string arrangements on almost all tracks, and Jamshied Sharifi who contributes Middle Eastern arrangements.
Additional players include virtuosos of Middle Eastern instruments including Dafer Tawil (qanun, ney, percussion), Henri Angel (orpharion, cetara, rebec), Idriss Angel (zarb, cittern, udu drum) and Mavrothi Kontanis (oud); and Ute's New York band, featuring John Benthal on guitar, Henry Hey and Clifford Carter on piano and keyboards, Todd Turkisher on percussion and Steve Millhouse on bass.
In a recent press release touting the album and the accompanying concert, Lemper explains how he came upon with the original concept to set Coelho's novel to music:
"I read Paulo's beautiful book on tour in Australia in the late summer of 2013, and a coat of peace
enveloped me.
"It is a gift to the world, and if I can enhance it only a little bit with this third dimension of musical context, I am eternally grateful."
To get your tickets to Ute Lemper's one-off performance of his Paulo Coelho inspired The 9 Secrets album head over to the Symphony Space's official website and pick yours up today.
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