Ema Nikolovska, mezzo-soprano & Sean Shibe, guitar

Two of the most imaginative artists of their generation, mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska and guitarist Sean Shibe join forces for a bold, genre-defying journey through the many lives of Orlando. Drawing on the legendary figure’s passage from medieval epic to Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso and Virginia Woolf’s groundbreaking novel, this highly original program explores love, conflict, identity, and transformation across centuries. Ema describes the Orlando project as: “Courtly love, conflict, identity, adventures traversing time and space, and the role of song, the life of the troubadour in the middle of it all – the fascinating, gallivanting, and almost science-fiction characters of Orlando from Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando are at the heart of this program.” “The experience felt like being awake in a vivid dream… Their shared artistic purpose and daring made it gel, along with the melding of Sean Shibe’s endlessly nuanced playing and the expressive beauty of Nikolovska’s voice.” — The Times