2015: When does it start?

The Nordic Harp Meeting 2015 will start on Thursday, 15th October at the LUMO centre in Turku at 4 p.m. with a welcome speech. After that, you can meet old and new friends, have snacks, sauna and jamming ad libitum.
From 8 p.m. onwards, there will be an occasion to spend a Scottish Night at the bar Sointu, on Linnankatu in the centre of Turku; the performers will be both Vincent Michaud and the Scottish music band “Devil & Dundee”. Vincent has a special approach to his part of the night: the audience can write a note on a paper to give a hint about the thing they’d like to hear, and Vincent will pick a number of these requests and improvise upon them. The band Devil & Dundee consists largely of familiar people from the meeting, with some others… performing Scottish traditional songs (perhaps with some Finnish flair).

The official programme will start on Friday morning at 9 a.m. with workshops, lectures, concerts etc, and continue until Sunday afternoon with open end.

We reserve the right to make changes until the final programme is printed on Thursday 15 October 2015.

Workshop descriptions 2015

Following teachers have provided a description of their music workshops that will be held during the Nordic Harp Meeting 2015:

There is also the possibility of an instrument-making workshop with Yrjänä Ermala and Eetu Klementti.

2015 update

Welcome to the Nordic Harp Meeting 2015, 15-18 October in Turku, Finland!

The programme will contain workshops both on beginner and advanced level, as well as dancing, ballad singing, storytelling, evening concerts etc.

Among the workshop teachers will be:

Anna-Maria Toivonen: Rune singing, the traditional way to sing ancient Finnish poetry
Arja Kastinen: Small kantele improvisation connected to the runosong tradition
Eeva-Kaisa Kohonen: kantele + harp ensemble
Henrik “Hummel” & Monica Schön: Swedish medieval ballads
Katja Nyuppieva: South Karelian (Livvi) folk music
Maria Ojantakanen: Danish ballads and the viking-age lyre
Pekko Käppi: Jouhikko
Tulikoira: Western Finnish songs and ballads
Vincent Michaud: Gaelic harp and Scottish dances
Wendy van der Meijs: Harp for beginners
Yrjänä Ermala and Eetu Klementti: Instrument making

The venue will be the LUMO centre (click for details), in an old-style farmhouse right in the middle of Turku City. Easy access by ferry or airplane, good bus connections. Friendly home-spun atomsphere and lots of learning, playing and jamming. Workshops of making simple folk instruments are being planned as well. Some instruments will be available for loan during the event.

Registration is still open (proceed to the three steps of registration)

The participation fee is 90 EUR for the weekend, meals included. There are two alternatives of hostel accomodation, one of them within walking distance. Some free, very uncomfortable accomodation can be arranged if need be…

The organising committee for 2015 consists of Helka “Harpbreaker” Ermala, Antti “Hairyface” Saarinen and Yrjänä “Pegleg” Ermala. If you have any questions, email to:

mejl

Stay tuned!