Norwegian guitarist and composer Timothy Johnson returns! Tim will play set a of brand new compositions written for the piano/guitar duo format, with the acclaimed Japanese Boston based pianist Hidemi Akaiwa.
Saturday, April 1st, 2023 | 1pm | $15; $7 for SCC members | tickets
Timothy Johnson is a Norwegian guitarist, composer, and educator, based in NYC. He has performed at world-renowned jazz clubs like Dizzy’s Club (NYC), The 55 Bar (NYC) Scullers Jazz (Boston), Smalls (NYC), and at festivals like the Buenos Aires Jazz Festival (Argentina), as well as clubs in Japan and Norway. Additionally he has appeared alongside jazz luminaries Damien Sneed, Melissa Aldana, and Neal Smith, and most recently has also performed in the award winning musical, Once on this Island.
He completed his Bachelors degree at the Berklee College of Music on scholarship, and recently completed his Masters degree at the Manhattan School of Music on scholarship, studying with guitarist Mike Moreno. He has received many prestigious awards along the way, such as the Berklee Jimi Hendrix Award, the NAMM Innovation Award, the Juvenarte composition award, placed runner up in Lee Ritenour’s Dreamcatcher Competition, and most recently was a scholarship/fellowship recipient of the Norway-Amerika Association. He appears on recordings by the award winning composer Eri Chichibu, as well as singer April Varner’s upcoming release, and is currently set to record his debut album later this year.
Hidemi Akaiwa is a Japanese pianist/composer. She started learning piano at the age of three, and as a youth won many classical music competitions. At the age of 30, she shifted from a successful, corporate career to studying jazz music. She was awarded a full scholarship to attend Berklee where she participates in the Global Jazz Institute, the Jazz and Gender Justice Program, and the Planet MicroJam Institute.
*please note these are NOT being shown at the SCC. Check links for details*
We are proud to, once again, participate in the Wicked Queer Film Festival for 2023. This year there are two full length features and a Swedish short in the Nordic selection.
Heartbeast (Finland)
April 6, 9:00 PM – Brattle Theatre
Elina, a 17-year old aspiring rapper, is forced to leave her home country of Finland and move to the South of France when her mother finds a French boyfriend. She is immediately drawn to her new stepsister Sofia, 18, a charismatic ballet dancer who leads a double life full of boys and drugs.
Daddy and the Muscle Academy (Finland)
April 9, 3:00 PM – MFA, Boston
Tom of Finland is one of the major icons of the gay world. His provocative erotic drawings have had an enormous influence on gay identity, attitude and self-understanding. This ground-breaking work combines interviews with Tom (prior to his death in 1992) and his leather men acolytes with hundreds of his original drawings and steamy fantasy scenes inspired by his work. We will be conducting a panel discussion post film moderated by Ulysses Thomas, Mr. New England Leather 2022 and joined by Michael Joseph, Hunter O’Hanian, and Cain Berlinger
Wicked Queer: Boston’s LGBTQ+ Film Festival (formerly the Boston LGBT Film Festival) was founded in 1984 by film programmer George Mansour. Wicked Queer is the 4th longest running LGBTQ+ Film Festival in North America and is an all volunteer organization. Our mission is to build community and to celebrate Queer storytelling and filmmaking through the uplifting of voices and stories not yet heard and to present and preserve the vibrancy of our histories.
Wicked Queer is a sponsored project of the Queer Film Institute.
During our weekly Kaffestugan we will be celebrating the Swedish tradition of Våffeldagen. Swedes have enjoyed waffles in some form since the 1600’s and they remain popular today. So much so they celebrate them every March! Often covered with cream and jam instead of syrup, these are sure to delight. Come on out for lunch and a waffle or just a waffle on it’s own! We won’t judge. The standard Kaffestugan menu will still be available.
The Renovation (Finnish: Se mieletön remppa) is a 2020 Finnish comedy film about a couple that inherit their dream house, but it soon leads to a catastrophic renovation, where her big dreams and his skills don’t seem to match.
BAND is a comedy of failures, seen through the eyes of three women of “The Post Performance Blues Band” who give themselves only one year to finally become popstars or quit forever. Each on the brink of 40, they find themselves again coming of age, reckoning with their artistic dreams & the meaning of friendship as they juggle the pressures of motherhood. Playing creatively with the documentary form, the film makes meaning out of life’s messiness and finds resilience in rejection. BAND tells a big little story of triumphant sisterhood.
In Icelandic with English subtitles | Directed by Álfrún Örnólfsdóttir
Saturday, March 25th | 1pm | $10; $5 for members of the SCC with | tickets
Suzanne Matson is a poet, author and English Professor at Boston College. She holds an MA in Creative Writing and a PhD in English from the University of Washington. The lecture entitled, “Writing the Finnish-American Story” is based on her finding that audiences are interested in talking about the process of turning personal and public history into literature. She will also read from her works and take questions.
Finlandia Foundation Boston is celebrating National Sauna Week with our second annual mobile sauna event on Saturday and Sunday February 25-26th, 2023.
A Traditional Wood Fired Sauna Experience
Abundance Sauna will be at the Scandinavian Cultural Center in Newton, celebrating National Sauna Week Friday thru Sunday February 24-26, 2023.
There are many sessions available each day starting as early as 10am. The cost for each one hour session is $65 regardless of the number of people in your party. The sauna comfortably accommodates 3 people at once. A session is 50 minutes of heat and 10 minutes for turn over. You are welcome to book consecutive available sessions for a longer sauna experience.
Daring souls are invited to experience the thrill of thermal extremes with a dip in the cold plunge tank or if mother nature supports us… some snow angels.
Afterwards relax around the fire pit to share stories of sauna adventure while enjoying tasty snacks.
Each participant must provide their own towels, swimsuits and hydration.
Preregistration is required. An welcome/orientation packet will be sent and a liability waiver must be signed by each participant.
If you have Sauna specific questions
Mark@gotsauna.com
For more information about Finlandia Foundation Boston
www.Finlandiafoundationboston.com
This event is supported by Finlandia Foundation National
www.Finlandiafoundation.org
A sudden change forces Karin to re-evaluate her life. With the help of friends, food and passion, she refuses to accept that life has an expiration date and takes the second chance she is given. In Swedish with English subtitles.
presented as part of the Scandinavian Library’s film series.
In Swedish with English subtitles | 102 mins
Saturday, February 11th, 2023 | 1:30 pm | $10;$5 for SCC and Library members | tickets
Oskar Stenmark is coming back to Scandinavian Cultural Center with new music; original compositions by Oskar and also the premiere of a brand new multi sensory project with ties to Oskar’s family history.
ABOUT OSKAR Stenmark has a Master’s Degree from Manhattan School of Music and is based out of New York City.
Saturday, February 18th, 2023 | 1pm | $15; $7 for members of the SCC | tickets
Martin Hedmark was a young Swedish architect who came to the United States in late 1924 to launch his career, primarily as an ecclesiastical architect for Swedish congregations and cultural institutions in America. His first commission was for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Providence. This unique building is an expression of two distinct early 20th Century Nordic architectural styles, the first, National Romantism was being supplanted by the second, Nordic Classicism, or Swedish Grace, around the time that Hedmark emigrated to the U.S. This lecture by Massachusetts architect Eric Inman Daum, will explore in depth Hedmark’s designs for Gloria Dei and touch upon other projects in New York, Worcester, Philadelphia and suburban New Jersey.
Daum, founding president of the New England Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art and a current board member, will discuss how these two Early Modern architectural styles exhibited in Hedmark’s work drew upon Swedish architectural history to address the demands of an increasingly industrialized and urbanized Sweden. Just as the Postmodern architects of the 1980s turned to History and ornament as a reaction to the corporate austerity of Mid-Century Modernism, the Nordic Classicists sought to reconcile their native architectural traditions with a developing modern state.
