Swedish group Orphei Drangar to Perform at Expo 2010

SHANGHAI, Oct. 18 /PRNewswire-Asia/ --

Date: October 18

Venue: Swedish Pavilion

Time: 10.00-15.30

Venue: Red Hall, Expo Center

Time: 19.00-20.00

Orphei Drangar (OD)

Gravity and playfulness. Tradition and innovation. Tranquility and crescendo. OD is a choir that constantly alternates between extremes and never stops pushing the boundaries of what a male-voice choir can and should do. This dynamic group now comes to the World Expo in Shanghai to perform at the Swedish pavilion and the Red Hall.

Since it started in 1853, the choir has been expanding the scope of all of its activities – its repertoire, its concert forms, its venues. Tours of Sweden are complemented by far-flung journeys to Asia, the US, Canada, and Europe. Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Lincoln Center in New York, and Symphony Hall in Osaka, alternate with performances in stone quarries and paper mills. Leading artists in Sweden jostle with internationally acclaimed stars like Malena Ernman, Peter Mattei, and Anne Sofie von Otter.

Folksongs and romanticism contrast with jazz, newly commissioned atonal music, lyricism, and Riverdance. But whatever OD sings, the sound is the same – OD’s unique blend of light young voices and older, more mature ones is the result of many years of work to refine the special instrument that is the male-voice choir.

OD's artistical leader and conductor since 2008 is Cecilia Rydinger Alin. Guest artist is the soprano Elin Rombo, seen recently in Figaros brollop at the Stockholm Opera and previously among other things in The Pearl Fishers at Folkoperan. Apart from Shanghai, the current Asian tour also includes performances in Tokyo, Beijing and Singapore.