Wolgemut

A German entertainment group specializing in middle age music, whom I have been fortunate enough to see two years in a row at Medeltidsveckan in Visby.

They consist of Berit Ruehl, educated dancer and self-taught musician; Michael Gartner (from USA), musician and musicologist; Claus-Conrad Zieme, veteran musician; and Stefan Plonske, mime, actor and self-taught musician.

They are perhaps most famous for their incredible live performances at different festivals the world over, where they simply go to a square, start playing, and after 30 minutes, have an audience of several houndred people. I have yet to see or hear of a person who walks away without a smile from their show. Their instruments include: bagpipes, flutes, harps, drums as well as some other instruments from that time.

So far, they have released two Celestial Devices (CDs), which I find the second to be most enjoyable. Their official homepage is www.wolgemut.com

Wolgemut (the name Schauspeluden is a misspelling of the title of their first album and not part of the name of the band) now have six CDs available:

1. Shauspiluden (1997)
2. Shauspiluden II (1998)
3. Danza (2002)
4. Tempus Saltandi (2003)
5. Momento (2005)
6. Live in Concert - Pennsic XXXV (2007)

The Live in Concert disc was a 1000 copy special edition and is only available at live concerts. I own two of them. The other CDs are available at CDBaby.com.

The current members of the band are Michael Gartner (Micha), Jason Adajian (Stumpy), Kevin Hughes (Bruno) and Elliott Treves (Affe). Alex Berstein and Geoffrey Schorz are guest performers for the 2007 season. In the 2006 season, Erik Ask-Upmark and Anna Rynefors of the Swedish groups Dråm, Svanevit and Falsobordone were performing with the group.