Drawing on the history of Scandinavian, Celtic, and American folk music, Nordensong’s rich musical world breathes new life into these ancient traditions. Composer/guitarist Karl Lundeberg has written two albums worth of music featuring his own 12-string guitar, as well as GRAMMY-nominated Loretta Kelley on Norwegian Hardanger fiddle and Laura Hummel on Swedish nyckelharpa, resulting in Nordensong’s bold, exciting sound that is a completely new re-imagination of musical eras and genres. They will be joined by award-winning master fiddler Andrea Hoag, whose music is “deeply rooted in the Swedish soul” (Falukuriren). More about Andrea at andreahoag.com

Zosha Warpeha is a composer-performer working in a meditative space at the intersection of contemporary improvisation and folk traditions. Using bowed stringed instruments alongside her own voice, her long-form compositions explore transformations of time and tonality. She performs primarily on Hardanger d’amore, a sympathetic-stringed instrument closely related to the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, as well as five-string violin. Her current acoustic and electro-acoustic work is informed by the cyclical forms, rhythmic elasticity, and the physical momentum of Nordic folk music.

Sara Pajunen is a composer-improviser and an audiovisual artist based in what is now called Minnesota (USA). Trained as a violinist and employing locally-responsive media ranging from field recordings to drone imagery, her work is motivated by interactions between her ancestral roots, American cultural histories, and connection to our environments through sound.

Pajunen has released six albums using folk and traditional music as the basis for singular collaborations. Her interests also lie in blurring human perceptions and cultivating presence through listening, using sound to shift our relationships to our surroundings and accepted histories. Longterm project Mine Songs: Sounding an Altered Landscape employs acoustic violin and hardanger d’amore, environmental recordings, image, historic material and processed sound to create a variegated depiction of Minnesota's Mesabi Iron Range, her childhood and ancestral home.

Pajunen has performed extensively in North America and Europe and her work has received funding from the Jerome Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, Kone Foundation, New Music USA, American Scandinavian Foundation, and the Arts Council of Finland, amongst others. She holds classical music degrees in both the United States and Finland and a Master of Music in Contemporary Improvisation from New England Conservatory.

Paul Dahlin is a Swedish-American fiddler from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was heir to a rich tradition of music from the Swedish province of Dalarna. His maternal grandfather is Ivares Edvin Jonsson. His uncle is Bruce Johnson.

By the time he was 17, Paul was performing regularly with his elders at Swedish American events. As he mastered the idiom, he moved into the lead role while playing with his grandfather, who had Americanized his name to Edwin Johnson, and Uncle Bruce. The three fiddlers called their group the American Swedish Spelmans ("folk instrumentalist") Trio.

Dahlin began teaching Swedish instrumental music at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. In 1985 he developed his class into the ASI Spelmanslag ("fiddlers' team"). When the group performed in 1989 at Sweden's largest folk music festival, Musick vid Siljan, Dahlin was hailed by his Swedish colleagues as an important keeper of a deep musical tradition that includes wedding tunes and dance melodies that are more direct and less ornamented than some strains of contemporary Swedish fiddling. His original composition "Danielpojkens Polska" was selected from 40 entries as the most outstanding composition in its genre at Sweden's Dalarnas Hemygdsrings competition. The tune is in the traditional polska form. Not to be confused with the polka, it is the "oldest dance rhythm in Sweden" and is considered by some scholars as a predecessor of the triple-meter waltz.

Skål Klubben Spelmanslag is a traditional Scandinavian folk orkestra, founded in 1990, that plays "gammaldans" music of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark on fiddles, accordion, guitar, pump organ, and double bass. The orkestra is comprised of 14 traditional folk musicians from central Minnesota.

Skål Klubben Spelmanslag was featured in the national broadcast of River of Song, Music on the Mississippi, on PBS television. They have traveled twice to Scandinavia to take part in music festivals and learn new tunes, and have hosted many Scandinavian groups on tour in America.

The orkestra has three recordings to their credit and have performed annually at many festivals around the midwest. They have been regulars at the Minnesota State Fair, Nisswa-stämman in Nisswa, MN, and Nordic Fest in Decorah, IA.

An accordion, Irish pipes and a nyckelharpa walk in to a bar... and the music was really good... no joke!

The McNordiques blend Celtic, French and Scandinavian music in a way that shines through to make your toes wiggle with joy. The McNordiques are Tom Klein (uilleann pipes), Dan Newton (accordion), and Renee Vaughan (nyckelharpa). Together, it's a unique sound... one you are not likely to hear anywhere else!

Ponyfolk was formed in 2014 by Clifton Nesseth (vocals, strings, guitar, keys, synthesizers) and Paul Sauey (vocals, strings, guitar, bass). Based out of Duluth and Minneapolis, MN, the pair’s multi-instrumentalist abilities and vocal harmonies have carved them out a reputation of creating maximalist soundscapes that are defined by droning layers of guitars, strings, and a synth bass. They're Nordic roots are ever present in harmony and modality.

Pony’s music has been described as “the dark side of Simon & Garfunkel” and “early Pink Floyd mixed with the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.” That said, they'll be "keeping it trad" at the stämma, and they'll be joined by their new band members, Alex Jakob Nelson (pump organ), Mikey Marget (cello), and Lewis Franti (percussion).

Traveling on a modern “Snoose Boulevard Highway,” Tjärnblom’s repertoire consists of Swedish, Finnish, and Minnesota tunes, old and new, both for dancing and listening. The band took its name in honor of a band member’s Swedish grandfather; translated from Swedish, Tjärnblom means “woodland lake flower”. Tjärnblom’s instrumentation features Swedish nyckelharpa (a folk instrument with 4 playing strings, 37 keys and 12 resonating strings, played with a short bow), mandolin/guitar, cello, and harmonium (a portable type of pump organ). Tjärnblom’s arrangements draw on traditional styles -- countermelodies, harmony and rhythm -- sometimes going in nontraditional directions. On occasion, näverlur (a birchbark natural horn) and water drum add unique sound color. Tjärnblom has recorded two CDs, “Nicollet Island Waltz” and “Starry-Eyed”. A third CD is due to be released in summer 2023. As a group, Tjärnblom has studied with Swedish musicians, Leif Alpsjö, Maria and Anders Larsson, and Finnish musician, Arto Järvelä.

Kip Peltoniemi began performing in 1965 when he sang the “House of the Rising Sun” on the "The Empty Stocking Fund" Christmas radio show radio in Wadena, Minnesota. This unusual selection was made because it was the only song he knew and he wanted to be on the radio. Nonetheless, it set the tone for the rest of his genre-bending musical career. In the 1970s, he began playing Finnish and Zydeco music on the two-row button accordion. Later, in the 1990s, two famous Finnish musicians, Arto Järvelä and Kimmo Pohjonen, recorded several of Kip’s intrumentals and songs, including “The Two-Row Concerto” and “Hennepin Avenue Waltz.” This led to trips to Finland, where he guest-taught and recorded at Sibelius Academy in the Folk Music Department. In 2002, the Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest newspaper, named his recording, “Minnesota Tango,” the folk album of the year. In 2020, Kip switched from the two-row diatonic button accordion to the more versatile five-row chromatic button accordion. He continues to play Finnish and Scandinavian music, but usually pelimanni fiddle music, not accordion tunes. His most recent composition is a Joplin-inspired tune, “The ‘Sam’ Francisco Rag.”

Ameriikan Poijat (Boys of America), Finnish American Brass Septet, was founded in 1990. They’ve played performances in some rather unusual settings, such as in an ice arena, in fishing boats on the Finnish Perhojoki river, on a raft in an abandoned mine, at Finnish border defense installations, at a McDonnell-Douglas military aircraft plant, in a Wisconsin cow pasture, on a Florida beach, at an instrument museum, in a barn, and in a one room schoolhouse. This seven-piece group is very mobile, and the Finnish brass music we celebrate seems to have drawn us off the beaten path. Made up of Midwestern musicians, some of Finnish descent, we have been sharing the charm of the old Finnish brass band music and have also performed the newer compositions for septet that have proliferated recently. They have traveled all over the United States and to Finnish communities in Canada. 2017 (Finnish Centennial) was their sixth tour of Finland.

They have released six CDs and have published their sheet music for other bands to play.

Ross Sutter is best known as a singer of Scandinavian, Scottish, and Irish songs, and for his wide repertoire of American traditional and popular songs. He accompanies

himself on guitar, dulcimer, button accordion, and bodhran. He has performed at countless venues throughout the region and beyond, from concert halls to libraries and

schools, from senior centers to international festivals. For some years now, Ross has served as the MC and leader of dancers around the majstång at Swedish midsommar

celebrations, including New York City’s in Battery Park.

Bart Sutter is the author of ten books, and the only writer to win the Minnesota Book Award in three different categories. He has read his poems in venues that range from Pittsburgh’s International Poetry Forum to The World of Accordions Museum, from the American Swedish Institute to Braham Pie Day. Bart has had four verse plays produced,

including Cow Calls in Dalarna, the premiere of which was sponsored by the Swedish Cultural Society of Duluth.

When Ross and Bart perform as a pair, their work has the kind of counterpoint and easy intimacy unique to sibling acts.

The ASI Spelmanslag is the fiddling group of the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We play the traditional folk music of Sweden, primarily from the region of Dalarna. Their repertoire includes traditional dance tunes such as waltzes, schottisches, and polskas.

The Twin Cities Nyckelharpalag (Key Fiddle Group) was formed in 1998 to practice and perform Swedish folk music. Their repertoire is drawn mostly from folk tunes in Uppland, Sweden, where the nyckelharpa tradition has its roots. Whether leading a procession, playing for dancing, performing in concert or providing focus for special events, the TC Nyckelharpalag enthusiastically carries on Swedish traditions through music. In performance members of the group wear folk-dräkt, folk costumes modeled after clothing worn on special occasions in the 19th century. The group is based in Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota and affiliated with The American Swedish Institute.

The Twin Cities Hardingfelelag is a group of five to seven players of the Hardanger fiddle, the national folk instrument of Norway. We provide dance music at Scandinavian dances and events in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul and greater Minnesota such as: The Nordic Ball, The Scandinavian Ball, Syttende Mai Festival, Norway Day, Nisswa-Stämman, Scandinavian Folk Music Festival, Minneapolis Arts Festival, the American Swedish Institute’s events, and the Festival of Nations.

Kari Tauring, Carol Sersland, and Mary Klockeman have been singing traditional Norwegian folk music individually for many years. Drawn together in 2013 by the desire to share vocal dance tunes with harmonies, descants, and other vocal ornamentation. From cow horns to the luring calls of fairy women to the trance inducing dance tunes, KvinneKraft summons up the most magical of Norwegian folk music. They weave music and stories together that wake up ancestor memories and entice everyone into a circle dance!

Emerging from the pandemic shutdown, the three found strength and power in singing together again. The three began exploring singing for dancing together in 2013 along with Janet Hill and Arna Rennan and performed as Nordivas until just before the pandemic of 2020. KvinneKraft means WomanPower - sustaining and uplifting power that comes from singing songs of the powerful women within their shared Norwegian heritage and deep Nordic roots.

In their repertoire are ancient ballad dances, leikarring or circle song dances, turdans or set dances, bygdedans or paired dances, and gammeldans (waltz, schottische, and polka).

They sing and embody runes as old as 169 CE and family heirloom kulokk, an oral tradition equally as ancient. Norwegian women’s working songs for churning and wool work find roots in chanted Edda poetry. You will hear nature instruments designed to attract or repel both animals and the magical folk of water, forests, and mountains. KvinneKraft takes us on a time traveling adventure of Norwegian culture.

Back by popular demand, Arnie Arneson leads this crowd-favorite youth group through a musical journey of traditions. Part chamber-orchestra, part dance band, part comedy troupe, you'll find yourself mesmerized by these talented youth.

For many years, Arnie has been a huge inspiration for countless students, and his work to keep traditional and orchestral music accessible in and around the Brainerd area has been deeply inspiring. Don't miss this group when they perform at the festival!

Lauluaika, Finnish for "Song Time", is a group of musicians who share a passion for singing and playing Finnish folk tunes for audiences who enjoy listening or dancing. Their repertoire includes Finnish couples dances such as waltzes, polkas, humppa, jenkka, mazurkka, and hambo, as well as lively group dances for all ages to enjoy. ​

Lauluaika musicians play a variety of instruments including mandolin, two row button accordion, violin, guitar, bass, octave mandolin, harmonium, jouhikko, kantele, nyckelharpa, and percussive instruments such as tambourine, and pimpparauta.

Twinflower is the wooden flute duo featuring Amy Shaw and Laura MacKenzie, accompanied by Chris Bashor, guitar.. Named for a wildflower that is native to both North America and Sweden, Twinflower performs traditional music from Scandinavia on two wooden flutes. The duo’s special focus is the vibrant flute tradition that existed in parts of Sweden during the 19th and early 20th centuries. When people think of folk music, the fiddle often comes to mind; however, the wooden flute was another popular instrument in the Nordic countries. In the southern provinces of Sweden, many flute players in rural places had rich repertoires of polskas, waltzes, and other dance tunes. Many of these beautiful old flute tunes have been preserved, and a new generation of flute players is literally breathing new life into them. Thanks to a fellowship from the American-Scandinavian Foundation, Amy and Laura were able to study with some of these tradition bearers in Sweden (specifically, Andreas Ralsgård and Markus Tullberg). Having returned home to St. Paul, Minnesota, they are excited to share this music with audiences in the Upper Midwest.

Foot-Notes hails from Decorah, Iowa. The band has made a name for itself as a bearer of Norwegian-American old time dance music, bringing back tunes from the house party and barn dance era of the Upper Midwest.

Foot-Notes has played for hundreds of community events and dances, including those in a historic two-room schoolhouse in Highlandville, Iowa, a regular event that began in the mid-1970s with Minnesota fiddler Bill Sherburne.

Beth Hoven Rotto has led Foot-Notes since the group was established in 1991. Guitarist, Jon Rotto is also a founding member. Erik Sessions picked up the mandolin to keep the Foot-Notes sound created by Jim Skurdall and John Goodin. Nina Sessions is one of the next generation of musicians, carrying the bass line after Bill Musser.

Everyone is invited to attend a Foot-Notes dance celebrating the opening of the exhibition Hand Me Down the Fiddle- Norwegian Fiddlers, Fiddles and Fiddle Tunes in the Upper Midwest at Vesterheim Museum in Decorah on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024.

Many Kantele (the beautiful and mysterious dulcimer-like instrument from Finland).

Ann Streufert and Beth Hoven Rotto have been arranging and playing their favorite Scandinavian tunes on twin fiddles for over 30 years. They feel that making music with each other is truly “playing.” They have performed at Nisswa-Stamman many times and have worked on numerous music projects together. Since 2008, they have led the Burning Bright Fiddlers, an ensemble of all ages who offer a medley of Scandinavian tunes at an annual holiday benefit concert.

Rose Arrowsmith grew up as a perpetual wreath-girl at Midsommar celebrations and is proud to be an all-around Scandi-nerd. She has been telling "deliciously imaginative" folktales, often from Sweden and Norway, since 2001. Rose founded, and for four years sang with, SVEA, an a cappella Swedish folk quartet, blending poetry and song. In her workshops, she draws on her experience as a camp counselor at Sjölunden, and language teacher at the American Swedish Institute.

www.rosearrowsmith.com