Sam Amidon will return to Australia in February 2017 for a six-city, eleven-concert tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) and Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto. On the program, titled Murder & Redemption, the ACO will perform Janáček's Kreutzer Sonata, based on the dark Tolstoy short story of the same name, and John Adams's Shaker Loops. Interweaved throughout will be arrangements of traditional folk songs—murder ballads and songs of salvation—that Amidon has re-written and will sing; Pekka and the ACO will perform arrangements Nico Muhly has written to accompany the songs.

"When people think about 'folk music,' they may imagine banjos and happy campfires," says Amidon, "but the lyrics of these old songs are extremely broad and they reach the deepest and darkest aspects of human nature as well as some of the most transcendental questions ... It is these links between the old ballads and a darkly psychological story and piece such as the Kreutzer Sonata, or the spiritual expression of Shaker Loops, that we hope to explore on this tour."

He continues: "Pekka has a boundless imagination and warmth combined with a profound, focused musicianship. Pekka and I have both spent time with traditional and non-traditional forms and the intersections therein: myself with Appalachian and Irish folk music alongside experimental music and improvisation and song forms, and Pekka with all the various forms of classical music alongside his deep knowledge of Finnish and Scandinavian fiddle tunes and songs. I am excited for this wide open collaboration."

See below for all of the currently scheduled Australian performances, which follow Amidon's October tour of the United States South with singer/songwriter Richard Thompson. For more on those and more, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.

MURDER & REDEMPTION AUSTRALIA TOUR