Presto Presents...Katie Bray and friends

Released last Friday on Chandos, In Search of Youkali sees British mezzo Katie Bray joining forces with pianist William Vann, accordionist Murray Grainger and double bass-player Marianne Schofield for 'a tribute to Kurt Weill, the chameleon, in all his glory'.

The album has just received four stars in The Guardian for the performers' 'easy fluency' across Weill's wide range of idioms, with Erica Jeal praising Bray's singing as 'a demonstration of how an elevated, “trained” voice can sound wonderfully communicative and natural in this music.'

The day before their appearances on Radio 3's In Tune and at the Fidelio Cafe in London, Katie, Will and Murray visited us to perform selections from the album including 'Barbarasong', 'Berlin im Licht' and 'Complainte de la Seine' before sitting down with Katherine to discuss how Katie fell in love with these songs as a child thanks to her mother and grandfather, why Weill's music has attracted such a diverse array of singers (from Teresa Stratas to Marianne Faithfull and Sting!), how he adapted and transformed his style as he moved across Europe and the US, and their collaborative approach to creating the new arrangements we hear on the recording.