Zoë Aqua and Her Transylvanian String Band – In a Sea of Stars

When Zoë Aqua stepped into a 150-year-old synagogue in Satu Mare, Romania, its star-painted ceiling and natural acoustics transformed her music. That moment – when sound, place, and history converged – gave rise to In a Sea of Stars, a live album recorded during her Transylvanian Synagogue Tour.

Drawing on Transylvanian folk traditions captured in historic Jewish spaces, Aqua blends klezmer, Hungarian, and Romani influences into a sound that feels both ancient and strikingly alive. A Fulbright scholar who spent two years studying Transylvanian folk music, she performs with three leading musicians from Romania’s folk revival scene, featuring instruments rarely heard on American stages: the cimbalom and the brácsa, alongside violin and upright bass.

In their first U.S. tour together, Zoë Aqua and her Transylvanian String Band deliver a powerful, joyful, and utterly unique concert experience – one that will resonate with fans of klezmer, Yiddish music, bluegrass, old-time, and Irish fiddle alike. There is truly nothing else like it.

Featuring: 
Zoë Aqua (violin, composition) 
Gergely Réman (cimbalom) 
Kálmán Szopos (brácsa) 
Károly Dénes (bass)

Already a spectacular, mesmerizing fiddler… her playing is so intense it’s almost architectural, able to hold up the walls of the synagogues.” — Songlines

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