Catalan vocalist Clara Sanabras is set to perform on July 20 at Joe’s Pub in New York City. The London-based singer returns to her Hispanic roots on her new album “Scattered Flight/El Vol Dispers” (Songs of Spanish Exile).
Clara will also be performing as soloist in the Lisa Gerrard/Hans Zimmer award-winning film score for Ridley Scott’s “The Gladiator,” with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on July 12 and the Philadelphia Orchestra on July 18.
Born in France, raised in Barcelona, and now living in London, Clara Sanabras creates expansive folk-rooted music. Her songs appear in top Hollywood soundtracks including “The Hobbit,” “The Hunger Games,” and “Snow White and The Huntsman.” She has collaborated with James Horner (Titanic), Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings), Nigel Kennedy, Jarvis Cocker, and Natacha Atlas among many, and tours the world as soloist in Lord of the Rings and The Gladiator in Concert.
Clara is also the main vocalist in Simon Schama’s recent BBC documentary “The Story of the Jews,” and her song “Nada Igual” as heard in “La Reina del Sur” was no. 1 in the iTunes charts of Mexico.
The new album “Scattered Flight/El Vol Dispers” is a tribute to her Hispanic homeland and the centuries of exile, from the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to the Diaspora of 1492, when both Jews and Moors were banished from the Iberian Peninsula. Catalan, Sephardic (Ladino), and South-American songs feature besides newly-composed works and poems set to music.
The first track “Scattered Flight” is an original song in English, whose title comes from a poem by Clara’s great-grandfather, noted Catalan poet and musician Joan Llongueras. Guests include Spanish folk legend Eliseo Parra, Catalonia’s leading traditional wind ensemble Cobla Sant Jordi, and the much-admired Elysian Quartet.
“The new album is an homage to the stories that my ancestors passed on to me, about their experiences of exile,” says Clara. “My intent is to rescue stories that are buried in the past in order to convey a message of hope.”
“I have never been an exile myself, but living in this current age of tragic refugees I feel it is important to address these issues through art. Art has the power to make people want to be better, and we need to become better in order to help each other,” she says.
Clara Sanabras’s new album “Scattered Flight/El Vol Dispers” is scheduled for release in Europe on September 2014.
Accompanying Clara at Joe’s Pub will be: Harvey Brough, piano, voice, MD; Melissa Tong, violin
Sami Merdinian, violin; Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin, viola; Adam Fisher, cello
Author: World Music Central News Room
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