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As a child growing up in Bucharest, Romania, Sanda was mesmerized by the music of the gypsy street singers, who could be found on every street corner. Sanda quickly picked up these melodies and soon became a child star on Romanian national television. When political persecution forced her family to move to East Berlin, Sanda was still a child: “We arrived in East Berlin”, she remembers, “and one week later the Wall went up and we were trapped.” In her teens Sanda branched out into rock music and became embroiled in the political unrest in East Germany. She was arrested and sentenced to prison. An international outcry against the government’s harsh sentence forced her release from jail. Labeled an enemy of the state, Sanda was expelled to West Germany. In the early 90s Sanda moved to New York.

She began performing and quickly became a sensation in New York’s downtown clubs, playing the Knitting Factory, Tonic, BAM, the Balkan Cabaret Series at Exit Art, the JVC Jazz Festival and different cities in the US. In Europe she was invited to perform at the Pina Bausch Festival in Germany. She went on tour, enthusiastically received at sold-out performances: the Ruhrtriennale in Germany, the Moers Jazz Festival, Theater Spektakel in Zurich, Switzerland and many others. An audience of more than 20,000 fans cheered her appearance at the Jewish Music Festival in Krakow, Poland. In 2009 she was invited to perform at the Nobel Prize ceremonies for Herta Müller in Stockholm, in 2010 she performed at the Baryshnikov Arts Festival in Sarasota, Florida.

"To call Weigl's voice "powerful" would be an understatement. She has an impressive vocal range. Her range, timbre and declamatory style makes for an intriguing presentation of passion and even sexuality that is a synthesis of male and female. Her interpretations are dramatic, even theatrical, but never "over the top"... but Weigl's purpose is not to shock, but rather to communicate the vibrant life force inherent in the music. Which she does admirably, with an energy and panache that speaks of her intimate familiarity with the material. Always though, it comes back to Weigl's extraordinary voice. And if you're a fan of vocal ethnic music of any sort, that's something you don't want to miss."
(Bill Tilland, BBC)

"Sanda dusts off the travel-stained repertoire (of the Gypsy music) with cabaret stylings and art-songs arrangements...she has a healthy sense of absurdism, the kind of Balkan black humor you find in Kusturica's Yugoslavian Gypsy films ..."
(Time Out NY)

"Weigl's voice reminds of Marlene Dietrich - sometimes diseuse, cabaret, then singer and actress - you can't nail her down she's full of melancholia, smoky and dark. It is never cliché - it is always very personnel."
(Michael Stenger)

 

 

DISKOGRAPHY

 

Gypsy Killer (2010), RIENCD76
Gypsy In A Tree (2012), RIENCD79

PJOTR KONSTANTINOWITSCH LESCHENKO