Aquapella World Music Choir

Aquapella World Music Choir

Sunday, June 24th @ 20:00 (Cultural Foundation Of Tinos)

Aquapella was founded in Townsville (Australia) 12 years ago by its Swiss born conductor Beat Lehmann. The 60 plus member choir specialises in world music a cappella and aspires to a professional standard, even though its members are amateur singers and come from all different walks of life.

Aquapella’s repertoire focuses on communal songs from across the globe, which are deeply meaningful in a spiritual or broader ritual sense in the respective cultures. The group therefore always sings in the original language of the community the music comes from. The great variety of music in terms of mood, rhythm, lyrics, harmony and quality of voice makes Aquapella’s performances very entertaining and accessible to all ages and musical tastes, and the soulfulness of many of the songs gives the repertoire a deeply moving emotional quality.

The enthusiasm and joy of its delivery contributes further to the success the choir had over the years. Thus Aquapella won the ‘Choir of the Year’ competition of the ABC, Australia’s national broadcaster, for the state of Queensland and won Townsville’s own Music Award.

The choir has been singing at major festivals in Australia and also regularly performs for charity events. Aquapella released it’s third CD “Time Out” at the end of 2014 and in 2015 had an extremely successful tour through Austrian, Switzerland and Italy, which represented the culmination of a full dozen years’ dedication to communal music that brings joy, harmony and meaning to people’s lives. The choir is currently preparing their next European tour through Greece.

Beat Lehmann

Beat Lehmann is one of Australia’s leading choir conductors specialising in world music a cappella. Before winning the Queensland final of the 2006 ABC Classic Fm Choir of the Year Competition with Aquapella, his Townsville based world music choir, Beat was directing an equally successful choir in NSW with several appearances at the Woodford Folk Festival and the National Folk Festival in Canberra. In 2007 and 2010 he was invited to teach his unique style of a cappella world music at the international “Stimmenfestival” in Germany teaching alongside greats like Bobby McFerrin. At the 2008 and 2009 Stimmmenfestivals he also did workshops with Kali Cercen, an original Romani group and Tutarchela, a famous women’s choir from Georgia. He performed at the 07/08 and 08/09 Woodford Folk Festivals with Aquapella, where they launched their first CD “Making Waves”. For the last eleven years he also conducted the Woodford Festival massed fire event choir and published two more CD’s with Aquapella. Beat was born in Switzerland, sang in big classical productions in Europe and was guest member of a famous Welsh male choir for a year. Being also a Social Anthropologist and Linguist his music focuses on the rich musical heritage of cultures around the globe. To delve into the incredible variety and depth of a cappella world music and the cultures it represents is not only great fun, but also a very enriching and moving experience.

Greece Tour 2018 Song List

700 Rolls                                             Contemporary Australian

Baba Waian                                        Torres Strait, Australia, indigenous

Ka Waiata                                           New Zealand, Maori

Todos Juntos                                      Chili

Heida                                                   Georgia

Emlanjeni/Yelele                                  South Africa

Bella Ciao                                           Italy

Sao Roma                                           Rom (Gypsy)

Ergen Deda                                         Bulgaria

Turtle Song                                         Australia, indigenous

Ratana                                                            New Zealand, Maori

Adio Querida                                       Ladino

Ipi                                                        South Africa

Samiotisa                                            Greece

Isa Lei                                                 Fiji

Tebe Poem                                         Russia

Andachtsjodler                         Austria

Nkosi                                                   South Africa

All of my Life                                        Torres Strait, Australia, indigenous

Aloha ‘Oe                                            Hawaii, indigenous

Shen Xar                                             Georgia