NISSWA-Combine two trios from Finland with another from Denmark and yet another from Sweden and you have the essential starter ingredients for the 17th annual Nisswa-stämman Scandinavian Folk Music Festival. Add 100 local folk musicians, stir in some Scandinavian food
and the stage is ready for the event planned June 10-11 at the Pioneer Village in Nisswa.
For the past 16 years, the festival has managed to showcase some of the finest folk musicians from Scandinavia. These same musicians who are in high demand all around the European continent and worldwide come to Nisswa.
Paul Wilson, founder of the festival, stated in a news release: "What has really been gratifying to me is to see how the Nisswa-stämman has grown from a very earnest local event to a now sought-after performance opportunity for really talented folk musicians. The word has gotten around in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland that we truly value the music here and are presenting it in a very authentic way. I rarely have to contact musicians and bands to invite them now. Instead they come to me, asking if they can please come here. Lately I've been getting more inquiries for performing slots than we can handle in one year. I end up asking them if they can wait until next year."
A featured trio this year will be Sonnich Lydom, Kristian Bugge and Morten Høirup from Denmark. Bugge on fiddle and Høirup on guitar are both veterans of previous Nisswa-stämmans. Lydom on button accordion will experience the event for the first time. Together these seasoned musicians perform old dance tunes and songs from every corner of their Scandinavian home country, from rural islands to cosmopolitan Copenhagen. The range of rhythms they offer on fiddle, squeezebox and guitar includes everything from wild foot stomping polkas to lyrical waltzes, the release stated. The also special in playing the exotic "Sønderhoning" dance tunes from the famous Island of Fanø. Lydom,
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Other folk musicians featured from the Nordic countries this year are the Haaga Folk Machine from Finland-young and energetic musicians who pack a musical punch on fiddle, pump organ and guitar: Septentrio from Sweden produce inspirational folk music that lives somewhere between pure folk and baroque on violin, cello and accordion and Karuna from Finland. The instrument players blend nyckelharpa, accordion and piano in harmonic twists ranging from folk to jazz.
Nordic Instrument Maker's Tent are new this year to the festival. Maker's tent features local Brainerd area luthier, Bud Larsen. Larsen has strong Norwegian roots. His father was born in Forde, Norway, and came to the US as a child. He was a violin collector, fiddler and music teacher and his prize possession was three hardanger violins built by Gunnar Helland from Bø, Norway. Larsen grew up developing a keen interest in the instruments too and had good fortune to be apprenticed as a young man with master builder Gunnar Helland for nine years in Fargo, N.D. Today Larsen is busy with his stringed instrument business located in his home in the Brainerd area. He specializes in building ornamented violins and also crafts other instruments and does repair work on stringed instruments of all kinds.
Earl Holzman, who builds Swedish nyckelharpas, also will be among the performers in the festival
If You Go:
Nisswa-stämman Scandinavian Folk Music Festival 2016
• Scandinavian music and dancing workshops, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 10, Nisswa area. A fee is involved. Email Janet Hill for information at janethillnew@gmail.com or call 218-259-4090.
• Gala Opening Sampler Concert, 7-9 p.m. June 10, Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa. Cost is $15 for adults and $5 children 12 and under. Tickets go on sale at 5:30 p.m. at the door.
• 9:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. June 10, old time dance featuring several festival bands, Nisswa American Legion Club.
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• 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 11, Festival, Nisswa Pioneer Village. Tickets are $15 for adults, $5 for children ages 6-15, ages 6 and under are free. No advance ticket sales.
• 4:30-6 p.m. June 11, Sm'rgåsbord, Cost is $18, Nisswa American Legion.
• 7:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. June 11, Old time dance featuring bands, Nisswa Legion.
• For more information: Go online at www.nisswastamman.org/, contact Paul Wilson at nisswastamman@gmail.com or 218-764-2994.
