Thursday, October 30, 2025 | 7:30 p.m.
Camp Concert Hall
Modlin Center for the Arts
All ticketholders are invited to join us at 6:30 PM for a pre-concert artist talk moderated by VPM Music Classical Host Mike Goldberg.
Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen – violin and other instruments
Nikolaj Busk - accordion, piano, synthesizers
Ale Carr – cittern, kannel, violin and other instruments
Tonight's performance will last approximately 90 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission.
Please note that this evening's performance will be introduced from the stage by the performers. The nature of Dreamers' Circus music is essentially spontaneous and the band prefers to change and vary their program from show to show.
A few words from Dreamers’ Circus
Hello and welcome to our performance as part of our Fall 2025 series of concerts. We are excited to be back travelling and touring internationally after what has been a challenging time for all of us. It’s been a while since we’ve been in the United States….What will you, the audience, think of what we play? How will you react? Well, we’re about to find out….
Firstly, let us tell you a little about Dreamers’ Circus, who we are and what we do.
Our approach to music sees us challenge the norms of the traditional music we were brought up with and attempt to shape it into how we imagine Nordic music can sound in 2025. We certainly do not seek to turn our back on our folk music roots and, having grown up with traditional music, we value it as an important part of our musical make- up. But we also discovered early on that traditional music cannot stay static, that change is inevitable and even, we might argue, beneficial. So, in a sense, we view our roots in the rich traditions of Danish and Swedish folk music as a point of departure and refuse to accept tradition as a straitjacket. We investigate new angles and consciously seek to challenge not just ourselves as performers and composers but also the norms and sometimes even the structures of the music we play. With Dreamers’ Circus, no two performances are quite the same and we enjoy the fact that today’s show can be quite different from yesterdays. We have learned to enjoy our curiosity about the music and have come to value the importance of listening. Close listening to what we each do is an important part of our engagement with the music and with each other. We hope that you, the audience, might also listen closely and join us as we react to one another’s playing and spontaneously respond. Our name hints at the possibilities and magic of the imagination and we hope that you will open yourself up to the colors and images we seek to create with our soundscapes.
Ale, Nikolaj, Rune.
The three members of Dreamers’ Circus first encountered each other at a late night, post-concert jam session in Denmark over ten years ago. They immediately hit it off both on a musical and a personal level. Since then, the band has toured all over the Nordic countries and Europe, they’ve played the Sydney Opera House in Australia and have made a number of tours to Japan. Dreamers’ Circus has shared stages with folk luminaries such as The Chieftains, Sharon Shannon and Vasen and have been invited to compose and perform music for stage and television shows in Denmark. A Danish critic observed that, “playing violin, piano, accordion and cittern they display a playful inventiveness allied with a Nordic sensibility that is at once refined and cool.”
Fifteen years after first meeting at a jam session in Copenhagen, Dreamers’ Circus have emerged as the pre-eminent international band in Nordic folk and traditional music. This talented trio crafts a sound defined by their virtuosic musical abilities across a diverse range of instruments that include fiddle, accordion, piano and cittern.
Drawing from their backgrounds in traditional and roots music, Dreamers’ Circus presents a genre-bending blend of folk sensitivity, jazz improvisation and classical complexity, all infused with influences from popular music. The result is a music that is resolutely contemporary but also rhythmically and melodically engrossing.
Piano and accordion player, Nikolaj Busk, rooted in folk music is highly sought after for his performance and arranging skills in the pop music and jazz realms. Violinist, Rune Tonsgaard Sorensen, while reared in a folk-music loving family, emerged as a prodigious classical player who by his early twenties was leader of the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra. Swedish-born, Ale Carr, is also from a folk music lineage provides rhythmic drive on cittern underpinning the bands overall sound.
Over the course of seven albums Dreamers’ Circus have positioned themselves as among Denmark’s leading musical ensembles, as evidenced by their appointment by the Danish Arts Foundation as a “Special Ensemble”. Their accolades include numerous Danish Music Awards, contributions to TV and film soundtracks and compositions and commissions for theatre and contemporary dance productions– the most recent being the highly acclaimed Aaben Dans production of ‘The Lost Musicians’. A busy touring schedule sees the band frequently visit the USA and Japan. They tour regularly in Europe and throughout the Scandinavia.
The name Dreamers’ Circus invokes images of the Big Top and suggests magic, playfulness, acrobatic inventiveness, fun, skill and imagination. In February 2025 they released their latest recording titled “Handed On”.
Dreamers’ Circus have issued 7 CDs
‘A Little Symphony’ (2013) released on GoDanish GO0913
‘Second Movement’ (2015) released on GoDanish GO0315
‘Rooftop Sessions’ (2018) released on Vertical Records VERTCD112
‘Blue White Gold’ (2020) released on Vertical Records VERTCD122
‘Langt ud’ i skoven’ (2022) released on Dacapo Records DRBK2022001
‘The Lost Swans’ (2022) released on Vertical Records and GoDanish GO0322
‘Handed On’ (2025) released on Vertical Records VERTCD132 and GoDanish GO1424CD
Electronic Devices
Thank you for helping us create a distraction-free experience. Please silence all electronic devices. We also ask that you refrain from taking any photos or videos.
Hearing Assistance Available
Modlin offers complimentary Assistive Listening Devices for use by patrons at any seat. Receivers may be obtained from any house management staff.
DeWitt Fund for the Arts
Support the Modlin Center for the Arts at University of Richmond as we continue setting the stage for creative experiences that deepen our understanding and bring us together. Donations help bring renowned artists to our stages, support the creation of new works, and expand engagement opportunities.
Paul Brohan
Executive Director
Shannon Hooker
Director
Jo Bachman
Artist Services Manager
bri conley
Assistant Production Manager
Sean Farrell
Production Manager
Shawanna Hall
Front of House Coordinator
Annaka Meadows
Marketing Manager
Cal Meadows
Patron Services Manager
Chris O'Neil
Business & Operations Manager
Kevin Willoughby
Assistant Production Manager
House Managers
Agyeiwaa Asante
Kim Chiarchiaro
Sharon Chandler
Madelaine Dye