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*Please note that this performance will take place at the First Baptist Church in Newton
We welcome Copenhagen Chamber Choir Camerata for presentation of choral music from the Nordic region, both contemporary and traditional, which delves into the unique Scandinavian choral sound and explores its rich history and roots in traditional regional music and in the Scandinavian nature.
Saturday, October 19th | 7pm | tickets $20; $15 for SCC Members
purchase tickets here.
We welcome a group of performers who, all musically talented, have studied or chosen careers in much different fields. Meet the physician and professors hear them play and listen to them talk about their stories and their passion for music.
PERFORMERS:
Allen C. Steere – piano
Joel Moerschel – cello
Betty Anne Diaz – piano
Manuel Diaz – viola
Gabriela Diaz – violin
PROGRAM:
Beethoven, 1st cello sonata in F major
Bach, sonata 2 in D major
Clara Schumann, Romances
Rebecca Clark, 2 pieces
Sunday, October 20th | 7pm | free with registration; donations welcome to support community programming.
We welcome author John B. Simon to discuss his book Strangers in a Stranger Land.
How one country’s Jews fought an unwinnable war alongside Nazis troops… and survived
The first Jews arrived in Finland in the mid-19th century when the nation, then part of imperial Russia, was only
taking shape. They were young boys ripped from their homes, taken to military schools, and forced to serve in the imperial army. One hundred years later, during World War II, 260,000 German soldiers arrived in Finland. The Nazis murdered millions of Jews around Europe, but in Finland Jews fought alongside the Germans against the Soviet Union. Not a single one was harmed by their Nazi brothers-in-arms. A field synagogue functioned on the front line, and several openly Jewish soldiers were even awarded the German iron cross. This happened nowhere else. How was it possible in Finland?
The reader is guided through 100 years of history via narrative nonfictional passages and the personal accounts of three fictional protagonists: Pesach, who was forced to serve in the imperial army and sent to Finland in the 1850s; Pesach’s son Mendel, who started a flourishing business producing hats for the Russian army; and Mendel’s son Benjamin, who ended up waging war against the Soviet Union alongside the Germans in World War II. Just as it outgrows the strict limits of fiction and nonfiction, Strangers in a Stranger Land reconfigures the history of
European antisemitism and the participation of European Jews in the seminal war of the 20th century.
Friday, October 25th | 7pm | FREE with registration
ABOUT JOHN: John B. Simon, an American Jew residing in Finland, grew up in Pleasantville, New York. After
graduating from Hamilton College, Simon earned an M.A. from Cambridge University. He also studied at the Sorbonne and the University of York. In the early 1970s, he founded The DOME Project, a community-based program on Manhattan’s Upper West Side dedicated to providing opportunities for marginalized youth in New York City. His 1982 book To Become Somebody: Growing up against the grain of society (Houghton Mifflin) tells the story of some of the program’s early participants. Nearly fifty years later, The DOME Project is still running.
Simon moved to Finland in 1984 and began working for KONE Corporation as a communications officer. After publishing KONE’s Prince (Otava, 2009), a best-selling biography of one of the company’s legendary owner-directors, he was named Finland’s 2010 Communications Professional of the Year.
Strangers in a Stranger Land was first published in Finnish in 2017 as Mahdoton sota. It was among the four books short-listed for 2017 History Book of the Year.
Simon and his wife, Hannele, have two children, Mikko and Elina, and four grandchildren, Stella, Daniel, Kira and Oliver.
Halla is a 50-year-old environmental activist who crusades against the local aluminum industry in Iceland. As her actions grow bolder, her life changes in the blink of an eye when she’s finally granted permission to adopt a girl from the Ukraine.
Saturday, June 15th | 1:30 | Free; $5 suggested donation
101 minutes. In Icelandic, Spanish, Ukranian and English with English subtitles.
Films start at 1:30pm. Refreshments for attendees are served at 1pm. Lunch (not included) is available in the Kaffestugan, which is open until 3pm every Saturday.
Hear some of Boston’s best virtuosi on an intimate scale and join them in lively round-table discussions in comfortable, friendly, and eclectic surroundings.
Program:
Valencia – Caroline Shaw
Strum– Jessie Montgomery
Beethoven String Quartet in D Major, op. 18 #3
Musicians:
Julia Cash, violin
Liana Zaretsky, violin
Emily Rome, viola
Leo Eguchi, cello
Sunday, November 17th | 3pm | Tickets $25 with discounts for seniors and students; 50% for SCC Members
Purchase tickets here!
From gently tonal linen näversöm thread-work, to colorful and glorious floral yllebroderi on tvåändsstickning knitted fabric, Swedish stitchers have developed some of the most unique and magnificent embroidery traditions in the world. Find out about the history and scope of Sweden’s rich heritage of needle craft,and see how a few simple to learn stitches can help you bring a touch of Scandinavia into your own home!
Saturday, June 8th | 1 pm | $5 suggested donation
register here
sponsored by
Pat Olski is equally passionate about knitting, crocheting and embroidery. Her written articles and designs reflecting all three have been published in numerous issues of Vogue Knitting, Vogue Knitting Crochet, Knit Simple, Noro, Inspirations Embroidery, and Piecework magazines, as well as in a large variety of needle-craft and knitting books.
She is the published author of a number of yarn craft books and booklets. Pat’s newest book “Creating Dorset Buttons” will be released in winter 2019.
Pat enjoys nothing more than translating complicated traditions into relevant and approachable designs that are fun to make.
Please visit
**please note that this playgroup will head outside. Please wear appropriate clothing/bring sunscreen**
Join a group of families for Norwegian playgroup! Give your kids a chance to speak Norwegian with other children while playing and learning.
Saturday, June 1st | 1:30 – 3pm | $5 suggested donation per child
Harry Cohen’s beginnings as an artist started in Boston’s South End in the 1930’s. Harry Cohen describes himself as, “…just a kid from the South End,” then says in a manner neither self-effacing or vain…”a kid who was never unsure… a kid who was gifted and knew it.”
After serving in WWII, Harry used his GI bill benefits to study painting at the Boston Museum School with teachers Karl Zerbe and Oskar Kokoschka. It was through their influence that he started his “Love affair” with art.
In the 1950s Harry moved to California where he continued painting and began exhibiting.
Now at age 94, Harry continues to paint in his studio in Woodacre amid the sanctuary of the California Redwoods.
We are thrilled to welcome Harry back to the Boston area for an exhibit of his paintings on paper (POP) for the month of May.
Please join us on Thursday, May 16th | 6-8pm for an artist reception.
Works will be on display through May.
A college student starts to experience extreme seizures while studying at a university in Oslo, Norway. She soon learns that the violent episodes are a symptom of inexplicable, and often dangerous, supernatural abilities.
“Thelma is both more mysterious and more accessible than his other films. The spell it casts transcends the silly plotting. It puts you in a zone all its own.” David Edelstein | Vulture
Saturday, May 25th | 1:30 | Free; $5 suggested donation
116 minutes. In Norwegian and Swedish with English subtitles.
Films start at 1:30pm. Refreshments for attendees are served at 1pm. Lunch (not included) is available in the Kaffestugan, which is open until 3pm every Saturday.
Princess cakes, cinnamon rolls, cardamom buns—you’ve enjoyed all the sweet Swedish treats at the pop-up café at the Scandinavian Cultural Center on Saturdays. Now enjoy them in a whole new way!
In this workshop you’ll use a variety of pastries from the Crown Bakery to create your own food still-life painting. Follow along with local artist, Laurel Greenfield, and learn the basics of using acrylics, mixing paint, choosing colors, selecting paint brushes, and creating a painting, from sketching all the way to finished masterpiece.
All skill levels are welcome and all supplies will be provided. No painting experience required!
Friday, May 10th | 7-9pm | $40 | $35 for SCC Members
register here.
