Bea Palya and Mari Kalkun

Bea Palya and Mari Kalkun

Bea Palya's 2014 album Nő (‘Woman') is what inspired and launched the "My Silks” - Divas From Around the World series at Müpa Budapest in 2015. On each occasion, she invites "singing fairies and amazon musicians” who are important to her but perhaps less familiar to the Hungarian audience to a joint concert. After sharing the stage with a Kurd (Çiğdem Aslan), a Cape Verdean (Mayra Andrade), a Norwegian (Beate S. Lech) and an artist of Iranian origin now based in Turkey (Michal Elia Kamal) she has now invited a guest who speaks Estonian folklore as her mother tongue: Mari Kalkun.

Like Palya herself, Kalkun thinks in terms of sung stories, and while her native language is Estonian folklore, she also knows the dialects of the local minorities. She goes out collecting a great deal, crafting her own instruments and most often taking the stage alone. In a clean and intimate way, but with extraordinary creativity and strength, she serves up the Estonian folklore that courses through her entire person. As Palya puts it, "Ancient femininity flows from her being, from her voice.” The two singers met and found each other after a concert Palya gave in Estonia, in Tallinn. "A born storyteller, a singer who evokes tribal sounds, Mari boldly experiments with a thousand ways of using her voice, from decorated melodic singing to growling like an animal, to Eskimo throat singing and ringing clear, shamanistic cries evoking the northern lights - whatever comes out of her mouth that serves to liven up the story.” Departing from the usual format at "My Silks” concerts, which features two independent performances with shared music-making - this time we can expect more emphasis on the latter. "I'm really looking forward to this concert with her: open experimentation, the interweaving of feminine threads of fate. In terms of joint creativity, this will probably be one of the most exciting instalments of ‘My Silks'. An ancient sung Nordic tale, seasoned with Bea Palya-style Central European melodies.”

vocals, kannel, footbell, accordion, piano: Mari Kalkun
vocals, sansula, tapan, televi: Bea Palya

Featuring:
double bass - György Orbán
drums, percussion instruments - Tamás Czirják
wind instruments - Balázs "Dongó” Szokolay
cimbalom - Jenő Lisztes

Presented by: Müpa Budapest