What is a “Fika”? Fika is a social institution in Sweden; it means having a break, most often a coffee break, with one’s colleagues, friends, date or family. The word “fika” can serve as both a verb and a noun. Swedes, like most Scandinavians, consider coffee an important part of their culture.
Join us for this special concert presented as part of a series during the SCC’s weekly Kaffestugan (café). Enjoy Swedish pastries from Worcester’s Crown Bakery, waffles and open-faced sandwiches, and bring your brunch into the Nordic Hall for some musical accompaniment!
Scandinavian fiddle duo lydia ievins and Andrea Larson are eager to share the music they’ve brought home from a rewarding year of studying together in Sweden. They perform an energetic and engaging program of traditional music on fiddle, 5-string fiddle, nyckelharpa, and voice — including waltzes, schottises, polskas, and more.
Lucas Moodysson’s adaption of his wife Coco’s novel about three young misfits growing up in early ‘80s Stockholm. Pixieish, mohawk-sporting Klara and her best friend Bobo are 13-year-old rebels looking for a cause. Despite having no instruments or discernible musical talent, the two put all their energy into forming an all-girl punk band, recruiting their shy, classical guitar-playing schoolmate Hedvig as the third wheel.
102 minutes. In Swedish with English subtitles.
Free; donations accepted.
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.
After their public showing movies in our film series become part of the Scandinavian Library’s collection of DVDs available for borrowing by Library members.
Swedish-American fiddler Brian Wicklund returns from his native Minnesota to host an evening of globe-trotting musical adventure. Brian is best known for his work in bluegrass music touring internationally as a sideman with many of the top bluegrass players in the country. In the last decade, he has returned to his Swedish roots through travels to Dalarna, Sweden to study the region’s distinct fiddle style. Brian will be joined by guitar wizard Flynn Cohen. Presented in collaboration with the Suzuki School of Newton.
Presented as part of The Scandinavian Library’s Nordic Film Series.
It is 1953, and Freya, who had gone to America as an officer’s bridge, has returned home to begin a new life. She moves into a small house of distant relatives in a quiet fishing village within Iceland. But unlike the drab, plump girl who went abroad, Freya, now in her twenties, is a stunningly beautiful woman. With her long chestnut brown hair, slender figure, and chic American fashions, she is somewhat of a mystery to the woman of the household, including the inquisitive eleven-year-old Agga, and especially to the men of the community. But as Agga soon notices, strange things have been happening since Freya’s arrival. Women are asserting their independence and men are mysteriously keeling over. Is Freya a murderess? A goddess of love? These are questions young Agga would very much like to have answered. 102 minutes. In Icelandic with English subtitles.
Free; donations accepted.
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.
After their public showing movies in our film series become part of the Scandinavian Library’s collection of DVDs available for borrowing by Library members.
Finlandia-Foundation Boston welcomes Glenda Dawn Goss, author of Sibelius: A Composer’s Life and the Awakening of Finland. Ms. Goss will share her insight into the life and works of the great composer in the context of Finnish and Northern European cultural history.
Glenda Goss is an American author and music historian whose special interests are music and culture, early modernism, critical editing, and European-American points of cultural contact. Her most notable work has revolved around the life and works of the Sibelius. Goss studied musicology at the Université libre de Bruxelles with François Lesure and Robert Wangermée. She continued her studies at the University of North Carolina, where she completed a Ph.D. in musicology with a dissertation on the Renaissance composer Benedictus Appenzeller, the leading court musician for the Habsburg regent, Queen Mary of Hungary.
Glenda Dawn Goss began her teaching career at the University of Georgia and was promoted to full Professor. She won university-wide teaching awards (in 1986 and 1990) and served for some years as the head of the division of musicology. She has also taught at the University of Helsinki (1995–96) as a Fulbrightprofessor. In 1998 she accepted an invitation to join the critical editing project, the Jean Sibelius Works, and served as the project’s editor-in-chief from 2000 to 2004. A native of St. Simons Island, one of Georgia’s Golden Isles, she currently teaches at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland.
In the area of Sibelius studies her contributions belong among the most important scholarship on this composer. These include the first scholarly editions of the composer’s letters, the first full-scale reception history, and the critical edition of the seminal Kullervo symphony. Her book, Jean Sibelius and Olin Downes: Music, Friendship, Criticism (Northeastern Univ. 1995) was reviewed by Joseph Horowitz in the Times Literary Supplement.[1]Jean Sibelius: A Guide to Research (Garland, 1998) was selected as the Outstanding Reference Book of the Year by the Music Library Association, whose jury described the Guide as “the Bible of Sibelius studies.” In 2009 her biography, Sibelius: A Composer’s Life and the Awakening of Finland, was published by the University of Chicago Press.
Goss is the recipient of numerous research awards from such organizations as The American-Scandinavian Foundation, the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel, Switzerland, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She has also been honored with two Sibelius medals: Medal No. 17 (1996), awarded by the Sibelius Society of Hämeenlinna, Finland; and the Sibelius medal awarded by the Sibelius Society of Finland (1997, and designed by Finnish sculptress Eila Hiltunen). In 1998 Goss received the Phi Kappa[disambiguation needed] Award for contributions to American music. In the year 2000, she was given the Vincent Duckles Award.
The Fantoft Stave Church and Issues of Authenticity in Architecture Robert (Rob) Curtis Anderson, PhD
Throughout human history the cultural meanings of various architectural structures have been altered. This continuous change in our social environments through wars and natural disasters contributes to the disruption of our sense of continuity, memories, and shared meaning, and challenges our perceptions of the authentic. Rob Anderson will comparatively cite various examples in America, Europe, and Asia, against the context of the Fantoft Stave Church, in Bergen Norway, to discuss the merits (and lack thereof) of various representations and reconstructions and the nature of authenticity in architecture.
Rob Anderson completed his Master of Arts in History and Theory from the Architectural Association (AA), in London, received a Bachelor of Architecture from the Boston Architectural Center, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art. From 2008 to 2010, Rob worked on his PhD course work with the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, researching issues related to reinvention, originality, plagiarism, and appropriation in art and architecture. In 2014, however, he completed his final dissertation work with Tilburg University, in the Netherlands, examining many of his earlier coursework and research issues in the context of the social construction of space. His dissertation is titled: “Authenticity and Architecture: Representation and Reconstruction in Context”. Rob is also a trained artist and designer, an historian of architecture, interior design, and art, and has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Japan. In 2007, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to travel to Poland and Russia, researching art and architectural education. Rob continually gives tours for Ptown Tours and Boston By Foot, has led tours through the Walter Gropius House, and has taught at many universities in the Boston area. PhD, SAH, EAHN, CAA, NCIDQ Certified, and Fulbright Scholar.
Join outstanding jazz undergraduate and graduate students from New England Conservatory for a performance of music by celebrated jazz legends, such as Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, along with original compositions by members of the ensemble.
Chicago-born pianist/composer Shane Simpson is a senior at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) in Boston, MA where he studies with Fred Hersch and Jason Moran. He has performed with many leading jazz artists of today including Rufus Reid, Steve Davis, Terell Stafford, and Tyshawn Sorey. Shane leads a jazz trio that performs regularly throughout the Boston community as part of Community Performances and Partnerships at NEC.
Simón Willson is a bassist hailing from Santiago, Chile. Simon attended the Escuela Moderna de Music preparatory program in Santiago and decided to pursue his musical studies at The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA, where he plans to complete his undergraduate degree in the spring of 2015. Apart from keeping a busy sideman schedule, Simon composes music and has taught several students and master classes in his home country.
Dor Herskovits is an Israeli drummer, based in Boston. He began pursuing his passion for music and drumming at the age of 14. After serving in the Israeli army, Dor studied in Rimon School of Music in Israel, while performing with local artists in the Israeli Jazz scene. In 2010 Dor transferred to Berklee College of Music on an international scholarship. After completing his Bachelor’s degree with excellence, Dor spent a year in New York exploring the affluent jazz scene and performing with top artists such as Tamir Shmerling and Daniel Rotem. During that year he had also participated in the semi-finals of the prestigious Thelonious Monk Jazz drummer competition. Dor is currently completing his Master’s degree in jazz performance at the New England Conservatory while performing with Boston musicians and composing original materials for future projects and teaching.
The Bay State: A Multicultural Landscape, Photographs of New Americans by Mark Chester is a moving and powerful exhibit of more than 300 newly naturalized U.S. citizens who are residents of the Commonwealth. These inspirational photographic portraits create a visual archive celebrating the diversity of Massachusetts’ citizens from 165 countries around the globe. New Americans enriches the viewer by sharing the vast cultural resources and rich ethnic heritage of the Massachusetts’ 351 towns and cities.
On view March-April. Gallery hours vary. Call 617.527.6566 to confirm availability.
About Mark
Mark Chester has been a professional photographer since 1972. He was Director of Photography and staff photographer at ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), in New York City, prior to relocating to California in 1975.
His photographs and/or feature stories have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post,Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner, Christian Science Monitor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star, Denver Post, Prime Time Magazine (Cape Cod Times), among other periodicals.
Chester created, produced and photographed the book No In America (Taylor, 1986), a collection of tongue-in-cheek photographs of “NO” signs. Previously, he photographed Charles Kuralt’s book, Dateline America (HBJ, 1979). His latest book,Twosomes (Un-Gyve Press), was released in 2011.
In 1987, Chester created and produced the traveling exhibition and catalog, “Shanghai: In Black and White”, in commemoration of San Francisco’s “sister city”, as part of the San Francisco-Shanghai Cultural Exchange Program. The photographs were displayed at the San Francisco Main Library; the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; The Kogod Arts Center of the Sidwell Friends School, Washington, D.C. and other venues.
Chester’s photographs are in permanent museum collections, including Baltimore, Brooklyn, Corcoran, Denver, Portland (Maine), San Francisco, and other institutions. His images have been exhibited nationwide in galleries, including O.K. Harris (NYC), Camera Obscura (CO), and San Francisco Airport and in galleries in Japan, Vietnam, London and alternative exhibition spaces.
Born in Baltimore, Chester grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from the University of Arizona (1967) with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He is a member of the Copley Society of Art, Boston. A former Adjunct Instructor at Cape Cod Community College, and photography instructor at the Falmouth Artists Guild and Cape Cod Art Association and Lesley University Seminars, Chester contributes the column, In My Mind’s Eye to the Community Newspaper Company on Cape Cod, including the Falmouth Bulletin.
President Kennedy wrote A Nation of Immigrants. For all the controversy around immigration, we are still a young nation, fed by nearly one million newcomers each year. The nation remains a land of dreams for many and this lecture will explore the history and current story of those who started life again in the States and made America the ‘nation of nations’ we know.
Join Westy Egmont in a fascinating talk about immigration during the SCC’s closing reception for “A Multicultural Landscape: Photographs of New Americans” by Mark Chester. Chester will offer an artist talk at 2:30pm prior to Egmont’s talk.
Event details:
2-5pm Reception: “A Multicultural Landscape: Photographs of New Americans”
2:30pm Artist Talk: Photographer Mark Chester
3pm Westy Egmont – “Up the Golden Stairs: Dreams of Being American”
About Westy
Professor Westy Egmont of Boston College is an associate professor of practice in social policy and social work with a specialization in immigrants. He directs BC’s Immigrant Integration Lab and there pursues comparative studies of the US and other developed nations on how best to include the foreign born in the social, civic and economic life of the community.
Dr. Egmont has served five governors of Massachusetts as co-chair of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Immigrants and Refugees and was formerly President of the International Institute of Boston. His long history of social involvement includes work as a missionary educator in Kenya, church work locally, developing the Greater Boston Food Bank and more than a decade as a talk show host on WBZ-TV as well as leadership within many community organizations from the arts to immigrant affairs.
Westy lives in Boston. He is married, is the father of four and grandfather of six. When not consumed by his grandchildren, he occasionally sails and sculpts.
Presented as part of The Scandinavian Library’s Nordic Film Series, The Bothersome Man shares the story of Andreas arriving in a strange city with no memory of how he got there. He is presented with a job and an apartment, but before long, he notices that something is wrong. The people around him seem cut off from any real emotion and communicate only in superficialities. He makes an attempt to escape from the city, but he discovers there is no way out. Andreas meets a man who has found a crack in a wall in his cellar. Beautiful music streams out from the crack, but from where? Directed by Jens Lien. 90 minutes. In Norwegian with English subtitles. 2007
Free; donations accepted.
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.
After their public showing movies in our film series become part of the Scandinavian Library’s collection of DVDs available for borrowing by Library members.
Glenda Goss is an American author and music historian whose special interests are music and culture, early modernism, critical editing, and European-American points of cultural contact. Her most notable work has revolved around the life and works of the Sibelius. Goss studied musicology at the Université libre de Bruxelles with François Lesure and Robert Wangermée. She continued her studies at the University of North Carolina, where she completed a Ph.D. in musicology with a dissertation on the Renaissance composer Benedictus Appenzeller, the leading court musician for the Habsburg regent, Queen Mary of Hungary.
About Rob Anderson