LADO National folk dance and song ensemble of Croatia was founded in Zagreb in 1949 as a national professional folk ensemble. It soon started to appear abroad as well, performing at the major dance and concert stages worldwide. Cherishing the authentic folk art in the first place, the ensemble enlivens all of its components in their fullness and completeness, in addition to its own finishing touch. Apart from a versatile folk dance tradition, Croatia has an abundant vocal and instrumental heritage and Lado is equally keen in presenting them both from the very beginning. This huge experience has been recorded and released on numerous CDs with Croatian folk music. The ensemble constantly expands its folk dance repertoire and intensively explores the musical tradition.

In 1990, within the project „A Church Year in Croatian Folk Tradition“, Lado commenced a systematic research of the Croatian sacral music of the folk provenance, which had by then been almost completely neglected and forgotten. It first focused on the songs from the Christmas cycle and later on the Epiphany and Easter cycle. The sacral repertoire has required the best of the ensemble’s vocal and instrumental abilities and it is now capable of performing not only vocal pieces but also the thematic and composition cycles. It was therefore logical to expect commissions of sacral pieces arranged and composed particularly for Lado and its abilities and specific qualities, deeply rooted in the Croatian sacral folk tradition. Lado’s enviable sacral repertoire now includes a large number of pieces that can be performed not only throughout the Church year, but also in various areas of Croatia with their specific music features.

The success of Lado’s premieres of traditional Christmas concerts organized in collaboration with the Zagreb Cathedral, Easter concerts at the St. Catherine Church in Zagreb and the concerts at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Split Summer Festival, Donat Music Evenings in Zadar, Dalmatian Vocal Music Groups Festival in Omiš, as well as concerts at the cathedrals in Zadar, Šibenik, Trogir, Makarska, Kotor and Đakovo and in many other churches resulted in numerous releases and the recording awards.