Dreamers’ Circus

Scandinavian (folk) music of world classFifteen years after their meeting during a jam session in Copenhagen and ten years after their first passage in CC Zwaneberg, Dreamers’ Circus has grown into the leading international band in North European folk and traditional music. This talented trio creates a sound based on virtuoso and fiery musical skills on various instruments, including violin, accordion, piano, and cittern. Dreamers’ Circus draws from their background in traditional and folk music to present a genre-bending combination of folk sensibility, jazz improvisation, and classical complexity, distilled through an openness to influences from popular music. The result is music that is resolutely contemporary and both rhythmically and melodically engaging. Pianist and accordionist Nikolaj Busk has a background in folk music, but his performing and arranging talent also make him highly sought after in the pop music and jazz world. Violist Rune Tonsgaard Sorensen, who grew up in a folk-music-loving family, emerged as an exceptionally talented classical musician and was the leader of the Kopenhagen Philharmonisch Orkest in his early twenties. The Swedish-born Ale Carr also comes from a folk-music family and his rhythmic cittern playing forms the basis of the band's overall sound. Throughout seven albums, Dreamers’ Circus has proven itself as one of Denmark's leading musical ensembles, as evidenced by their nomination by the Deense Kunststichting as a ‘Special Ensemble’. Talrijke Deense Muziekprijzen adorn their shelves and they have contributed to TV and film soundtracks and composed music for theater and contemporary dance performances - the most recent is the acclaimed Aaben Dans production of ‘The Lost Musicians’. A busy tour schedule ensures that the band regularly visits the US and Japan. They tour regularly through Europe and the Scandinavian countries. The name Dreamers’ Circus evokes images of the big tent and suggests magic, playfulness, acrobatic ingenuity, fun, skill, and imagination. In February 2025, their latest recording appeared, titled ‘Handed On’.