About us
Our band are ambassadors for cross-cultural collaboration within the scope of music. Our band members have both Muslim, Jewish and Christian backgrounds – be it cultural or spiritual.
The music is mainly written by the band’s musicians; however, we also have beloved traditional songs in our wide repertoire.
Annette Bellaoui was a unifying figure when Radiant Arcadia was founded in 2012, and we collaborated with her until 2020. Now we are sort of autonomous.
For the past decade Radiant Arcadia have been on the road two to three times a year touring in both Denmark and abroad. We have been playing three times in India at the Sur Jahan Festival, twice in Morocco and at the Folk Musical Festival Dublin, once at the Urkult Festival in Sweden and we had a successful tour in the Faroe islands.
The Band
Anja Præst Mikkelsen
Graduated as a folk musician from the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in 2002. Professional musician on clarinet and bass clarinet in various bands, including Phønix and Anja Præst Trio.
Maren Halberg
Professional accordionist. Graduated as a folk musician from the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in 2005 and from Det Kongelige Danske Musikkonservatorium (the Royal Danish Academy of Music) in 2016. Maren is a versatile accordionist and composer, and she plays in various bands, including the award-winning orchestra Svøbsk.
Salam Susu
Graduated as a pianist from Syria Music Conservatory in 2007, with a master’s degree in Music Theory and Arabic Culture in 2009. Oriental harp and lead vocals. She is a pianist in Yamm Ensemble who performs within Syrian classical and traditional music.
Channe Nussbaum
This Scandinavian Klezmer queen has been composing and performing for three decades. She has released 10 acclaimed Klezmer albums and 5 pop-folk albums. Channe sings in Yiddish, Hebrew and Danish.
Radia was born in Spain, and she is a virtuoso singer. She specializes in Spanish folk song as well as in overtone singing, but she also has a strong affection for the spiritual music of Turkey (Ilahi Sufi Music), India, Central Asia and the Mediterranean. In addition, Radia plays frame drum and Jew harp.
Radia Semillas de Eternidad
Regular guest musicians:
Sakina Teyna (TR/AUT)
Sufi-soul singer Sarah Yaseen is a Manchester-based singer-songwriter of Kashmiri/Pakistani family heritage.
As a solo artist she performs as Sarah the Sufi, singing in English and Urdu whilst accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, the 1-string Ektara or with Arabic derbuka.
Sarah is also a frontline singer with the world music ensemble, Rafiki Jazz. www.sarahyaseen.com
Aoife Scott (IRL)
Sarah Yaseen (UK/PAK)
Photo: Derya Schubert Gülcehre
Vocals (Gaelic, Irish, English)
Vocals (Turkish, Kurmanji) www.sakinateyna.com
Follow us on
Contact
Maren Halberg +4526189202
Anja Præst Mikkelsen +4521433821