Kalenda Maya is an exotic and exciting experience. Specializing in Medieval music, the group makes use of authentic instruments, many of them built by Sverre Jensen, copying drawings of the instruments in old manuscripts, and stone sculptures from medieval times. The musicians seek to make the music come alive to modern people, and take a fresh approach to these old tunes. Influenced as they are by folk music traditions from many countries, rooted back in the medieval times, they have reached a broad audience.
Kalenda Maya is wellknown in Norway, but have also toured a lot abroad, first of all in Spain, but also in in Brazil, Portugal, France, Germany, Estonia, Finland and Sweden.
The group has released three CD's: Kalenda Maya.Medieval and renaissance music in 1985, giving them Spellemannprisen(Norwegian Grammy), Norse Ballads in 1989,and Pilegrimsreiser (Pilgim journeys) in 1997. All the cd's recieved exellent reviews.
Kalenda Maya has a varied repertory of medieval music: Cantigas de Santa Maria from Spain, Italian dances, songs of love from French trubadours, German Minnesanger, hailing nature and the spring, and songs of the pilgrims, on their way to the most important churches in the Medieval times, Nidaros (Trondheim), Rome, Jerusalem or Santiago de Compostela. From Norway they bring medieval ballads, survived through the folk tradition,songs of legends, knights, giants and trolls, martyrs and saints and mystical songs about the norwegian landscape and scenery. A lot of the music Kalenda Maya performs is suitable for concerts in church, but in good medieval tradition, they also have a large secular repertory for more relaxed venues.
