The Great Nordic Night/Band at Womex

WOMEX is proud to announce a special, exclusive event for the Opening Concert – the Great Nordic Night, presented in association with the Danish Folk Council. In Danish Broadcasting’s great Koncerthuset, a newly built concert venue in Copenhagen, an all-star Nordic band takes to the stage with artists from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Samiland and Greenland. Danish fiddler Harald Haugaard has created and will direct this once-in-a-lifetime concert experience.

Traditional Nordic music continues to live and develop . It constitutes part of the common as well as the individual identity in Nordic culture, and exists to this day in its authentic forms such as Sami joik, Danish sønderhoning and Swedish kulning as well as in updated contemporary versions.

The Great Nordic Night tells the tale of the life, history and nature of the Nordic peoples through music, song and light, and the concert introduces the multiplicity, the shades, not to mention the force of ancient Nordic music in a modern tone. The bedrock on stage is The Great Nordic Band, counting some of the very best musicians on the current traditional and contemporary Nordic music scene, including Roger Tallroth (guitar), Ragnhild Furebotten (violin) and Tapani Varis (bass).

The band will back a number of outstanding vocal and instrumental soloists such as Norwegian Hardanger fiddle player Annbjørg Lien, Faroese singer Eivør, and the Swedish trio Frifot.

The concert has been uniquely created and produced for the WOMEX 09 Opening in Copenhagen by Danish fiddle player Harald Haugaard in cooperation with the Danish Folk Council.

More info here: www.youtube.com/greatnordicnight

The Great Nordic Band:

Ragnhild Furebotten (Norway) fiddle
Olli Kari (Finland) accordions
Esko Järvelä (Finland) viola
Jonas Simonson (Sweden) flutes
Hanna Wiskari (Sweden) saxophones
Roger Tallroth (Sweden) guitars
Krister Jonsson (Sweden) electric guitar
Rasmus Zeeberg (Denmark) mandolins
Tapani Varis (Finland) bass
Sune Rahbek (Denmark) percussion
Anders Löfberg (Sweden) cello

Featuring soloists:

Heiða Árnadóttir (Iceland) vocals
Helene Blum (Denmark) vocals
Eivør (Faroe Islands) vocals
Hallgrim Hansegård Frikar Dance Company (Norway) dancer
Johan Hedin (Sweden) key harp
Johanna Juhola (Finland) accordion
Annbjørg Lien(Norway) Hardanger fiddle
Rasmus Lyberth (Greenland) vocals
Wimme Saari (Finland) vocals
Peter Uhrbrand (Denmark) fiddle
Frifot (Sweden) with:
Lena Willemark vocals
Per Gudmundson violin
Ale Möller mandola

The Opening Dj will be:

DJ Aros Waits (Denmark) Time:
28.10.2009 20:00

Location:
Copenhagen Concert Center / Studio 1, København, Denmark