Lado, the state ensemble of Croatian folk songs and dances, is the Croatian professional folklore ensemble established in 1949 for the research, collection, artistic interpretation and stage performance of the most traditional works of Croatia?s rich heritage of folk songs and dances.
Lado has assembled the talents of the most famous Croatian folklorists and choreographers, folk musicians, composers and conductors who are inspired by folk music. Lado’s imposing repertoire, both choreographically and musically, is respected throughout the world for its authenticity. The repertoire contains more than one hundred choreographies and hundreds of vocal and instrumental works. Remarkably, the ensemble of dancers is equally at home as an award-winning folk choir that performs both traditional regional folk songs and sacred folk masses.
In 2002 Ensemble Lado represented Europe at the 6th World Symposium on Choral Music (Minnesota) as one of the 22 world’s best choirs. Lado was also awarded the prestigious Golden Doruntina 2000 for its vocal and choreographic excellence. The fifteen versatile musicians played an extraordinary range of musical selections on a wide variety of more than 40 traditional folk instruments.
Lado boasts a unique collection of hundreds of authentic folk costumes of extraordinary value and beauty, so that each performance of Lado is also a museum-like display of traditional Croatian folk costumes.
Each season, Lado offers three different dance programs with 10-12 choreographies and three vocal and instrumental secular and sacred traditional folk music programs.
The Lado ensemble has performed in numerous musical and video recordings, and in a wide variety of both Croatian and foreign television programs, documentary and feature films, and theatrical productions.
Lado’s stage performances throughout the world have earned standing ovations from its enthusiastic audiences and dance critics have ranked Lado as one of the finest and most authentic folk dance companies in the world.
The Lado Ensemble has released over 20 albums, including secular and spiritual music.
Some of the numerous Croatian and international awards won by the Lado Ensemble include: Gold Doruntina 2000, Porin 2000 best folklore music album; Porin 2002 overall artistic creation; Porin 2003 best folklore music album; Porin 2003 best folklore music performance; Porin 2003 best spiritual music album.
Discography:
Narodne pjesme i plesovi sjeverne Hrvatske (1987)
Telo Kristuševo, Narodi se mladi kralj’ (1994)
Kalvarija (1994)
Iz Kajkavskih krajeva (1998)
Iz Kajkavskih krajeva vol.2 (1998)
Iz Hrvatske narodne glazbene riznice vol.1 (1998)
Kolo igra, tamburica svira vol.1 (1999)
Kolo igra, tamburica svira vol.2 (1999)
O vreme prelubleno – (1999)
Na moru i kraju – (2000)
U društvu sviraca vol.1 (2000)
Najljepše Božicne pjesme (2001)
U društvu sviraca vol.2 (2001)
Na zelenom travniki (2001)
Raspelo (2002)
Preveliku radost navišcujem vama (2003)
Lado electro (2003)
Zorja moja zorja – Andela Potocnik (2004)
Božic u svijetu (2004)
Iz Hrvatske narodne glazbene riznice vol.2′ (2005)
Polke i drmeši (2007)
Teta Liza i Lado (2007)
Janja – Niz Muru i Dravu (2009)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
