In Search of Youkali: Songs of Kurt Weill Katie Bray, Murray Grainger, Marianne Schofield, William Vann

• Kurt Weill (1900 - 1950): A Glimpse of Youkali - An Improvisation:
• 1 Weill: A Glimpse of Youkali - An Improvisation 00:48
• Barbarasong (from The Threepenny Opera):
• 2 Weill: Barbarasong (from The Threepenny Opera) 05:06
• Berlin im Licht:
• 3 Weill: Berlin im Licht 01:46
• Overture to The Threepenny Opera:
• 4 Weill: Overture to The Threepenny Opera 01:57
• Surabaya Johnny (from Happy End):
• 5 Weill: Surabaya Johnny (from Happy End) 05:04
• A Vision of Youkali - An Improvisation:
• 6 Weill: A Vision of Youkali - An Improvisation 02:55
• Complainte de la Seine ("Beauties of the Night" from the Torn Dress):
• 7 Weill: Complainte de la Seine ("Beauties of the Night" from the Torn Dress) 04:04
• Je ne t’aime pas (from Marie Galante):
• 8 Weill: Je ne t’aime pas (from Marie Galante) 04:41
• J’attends un navire (from Marie Galant):
• 9 Weill: J’attends un navire (from Marie Galant) 05:16
• A Dream of Youkali - An Improvisation:
• 10 Weill: A Dream of Youkali - An Improvisation 01:42
• Buddy on the Nightshift (from Lunchtime Follies):
• 11 Weill: Buddy on the Nightshift (from Lunchtime Follies) 02:04
• Nanna’s Lied:
• 12 Weill: Nanna’s Lied 03:49
• September Song (from Knickerbocker Holiday):
• 13 Weill: September Song (from Knickerbocker Holiday) 02:57
• Apple Jack (from Huckleberry Finn):
• 14 Weill: Apple Jack (from Huckleberry Finn) 01:56
• A Premonition of Youkali - An Improvisation:
• 15 Weill: A Premonition of Youkali - An Improvisation 01:20
• Speak Low (from One Touch of Venus):
• 16 Weill: Speak Low (from One Touch of Venus) 03:12
• My Ship (from Lady in the Dark):
• 17 Weill: My Ship (from Lady in the Dark) 03:24
• This Time Next Year (from Huckleberry Finn):
• 18 Weill: This Time Next Year (from Huckleberry Finn) 02:50
• Youkali:
• 19 Weill: Youkali 05:36
• Total Runtime 01:00:27

Info for In Search of Youkali: Songs of Kurt Weill

Winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, the British mezzo-soprano Katie Bray has become known for her magnetic stage presence and gleaming, expressive tone.

Katie writes: ‘Youkali, It is the land of our desires, It is happiness, it is pleasure... But it is a dream, a folly, There is no Youkali!’. This song was my first encounter with Kurt Weill, more than twenty years ago, and that yearning, mesmerising tango has been a constant companion ever since.

The sentiment behind ‘Youkali’ touched me deeply, and seemed to echo Weill’s own search for a place of personal and artistic freedom, a German Jew forced into exile in 1933 owing to the rise of the Nazi regime. He moved around the world, and with each new country came a reinvention of himself and some more miraculous musical shape-shifting. ‘Youkali’ is Weill’s ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’, an idea that resonates strongly with me, and seems painfully relevant to us all as I write this, in 2025, yet again living in a world at war. My performances of Weill’s songs have always centred around ‘Youkali’ and Weill’s search for a place to belong and to be free. I have wanted to make this album for many years, and am thrilled finally to have had the chance to do so with such a special team of collaborators and friends. It is my tribute to Kurt Weill, the chameleon, in all his glory, and a tribute to us all in our search for kindness, love, and peace’.

Katie Bray, mezzo-soprano
Murray Grainger, accordion
Marianne Schofield, double bass
William Vann, piano

Katie Bray
Winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at Cardiff Singer of the World, British mezzo-soprano Katie Bray has become known for her magnetic stage presence and gleaming, expressive tone: “Katie Bray’s Rosina, who sets off sparks at the top and bottom of her voice and plays the role as a deliciously skittish “live wire”, a classic screen goddess” Richard Fairman, Financial Times

In the opera house her roles have included Hansel Hansel and Gretel, Rosina Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Varvara Katya Kabanova, Nancy Albert Herring, Zerlina Don Giovanni, Juno Semele, Zenobia Radamisto, Minerva Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Zaida Il turco in Italia, Isolier Le Comte Ory and Vivaldi’s Griselda (title role) for companies including English National Opera, Irish National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Garsington Opera, Grange Park Opera and Opera Holland Park. Her interest in the music of Weill and cabaret has led to staged productions of this music, including Effigies of Wickedness, based on songs banned by the Nazis, at the Gate Theatre Notting Hill. Her debut Weill album will be recorded with Chandos Records in early 2025.

On the concert platform she has appeared with orchestras including London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Hallé, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Aalborg Symphony, Britten Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Orchestre de Chambre de Paris in repertoire ranging from Messiah and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to Verdi Requiem, Elijah and The Dream of Gerontius, as well as mixed programmes of classical and baroque arias. She recently gave the premiere of Spell Book by Freya Waley-Cohen with the Manchester Collective and performed Haydn’s Seven Last Words with RIAS Kammerchor at Konzerthaus Berlin.

Noted for her interpretations of baroque repertoire she has received regular invitations from early music groups including Academy of Ancient Music, Irish Baroque Orchestra, The English Concert, Barokksolistene, Monteverdi Choir, Wroclaw Baroque, La Nuova Musica and Spira Mirabilis with conductors including Harry Bicket, Laurence Cummings, Bjarte Eike, Peter Whelan and John Eliot Gardiner.

A keen recitalist she has performed Schumann and Schubert with Sholto Kynoch for Oxford International Song Festival, Britten, Berlioz and Barber with Michael Pandya at Glenarm Festival, music by Pauline Viadot in Dorset, Kurt Weill in Deal and a semi-staged Italienisches Liederbuch by Hugo Wolf with Christopher Glynn and Roderick Williams at Milton Court Concert Hall and Ryedale Festival.

Highlights this 25/26 season include singing Rosmira Partenope at English National Opera under Christian Curnyn, Medoro Orlando at Longborough Festival Opera under Christopher Moulds, Bach’s B Minor Mass with Irish Baroque Orchestra under Peter Whelan, a Messiah tour to Tenerife and Madrid with The Sixteen, Dido Dido and Aeneas with Royal Northern Sinfonia directed by Bjarte Eike and also performing St Marcus Passion with the Arctic Philharmonic.

Katie Bray graduated as a Karaviotis Scholar from the opera course at the Royal Academy of Music, was awarded the Principal’s Prize and won First Prize in the Richard Lewis Singing Competition.

Booklet for In Search of Youkali: Songs of Kurt Weill