One of the highlights of the Taiwan World Music Festival in May was Urna Chahar-Tugchi (烏仁娜), a singer from Inner Mongolia who dazzled crowds in Ta-an Forest Park. Her voice has a four-octave range and can at times sound light and smooth, at other times flowing like a soprano and alternately sharp as a knife.
Urna, who hails from the Ordos grasslands of Inner Mongolia and is distributed in Taiwan by the Trees Music & Art label, gave two acclaimed performances during the festival. Accompanying Urna is her German husband and producer Robert Zollitsch, who also played the zither and performed Mogolian throat singing.
"In my homeland, we call Ordos the sea of songs. I'm proud to be born in such a land with beautiful melodies and legends. I sing when I herd the cows or ride a horse. We sing under the wide-open sky," said Urna at a press conference during the festival.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TREES MUSIC & ART
Having released three albums in Europe and joined major music festivals, Urna recently released a new album in Taiwan titled Jamar (在路上). The album is a mix of Bavarian styles, Mongolian instruments and Indian Ramesh Shotham percussion.
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