Ho Orchestra

Two musicians form the core of Ho Orchestra: the Swiss composer and pianist Simon Ho (real name Simon Hostettler) and Henk Hofstede, the singer and composer of the Dutch band Nits. Drummer Rob Kloet also from Nits and ex-Nits members Laetitia Van Krieken and Arwen Linnemann are also members of Ho Orchestra. Henk Hofstede has participated in the recording of Simon Ho's two studio albums "Before Sleep" (2002) and "If" (2005). In order to celebrate the release of "If", Simon Ho set out on tour with his Swiss band and at the end of the tour, two special concerts in February 2005 at Kaserne Basel in Basel (Switzerland) reunited most of the musicians involved in the recording. It was a pan-European meeting of talent: fourteen musicians, eight women and six men from Switzerland, Holland, Ireland, Germany and Finland formed a band called Ho Orchestra. These two gigs were recorded and a selection of the best recordings of those two evenings were released on the album "A Normal Sunday Live" (2006). It contains songs by Simon Ho, Nits, Värttinä and Markku Lepistö. On September 4th 2010 Ho Orchestra performed live at Theaterspektakel in Zürich, Switzerland. This concert was recorded and released as an album called "Spoon River - A Lakeside Concert" (2011). The lyrics on this album by Eric Facon are inspired by Spoon River Anthology and The New Spoon River by American poet Edgar Lee Masters.