XXVI Viljandi Folk Music Festival announces another 10 performers!
Viljandi Folk Music Festival, which takes place on 26.-29th of July, announces another 10 performers. Previously announced artists are Untsakad, Trad.Attack!, Curly Strings, Zetod and Puuluup from Estonia, and Bombino (NE), The East Pointers (CAN), Kiharakolmio (FIN), Dobranotch (RUS) and Lekarerätten (SWE) from abroad.
New additions to the list are Ar-God, Maarja Nuut and HH, Nikns Suns and Etnosfäär from Estonia and Debi Gogochurebi (GE), Hò-rò (GB-SCT), Kalàscima (IT), Kadrievi Orchestra (MK), Tanzhausgeiger (AT) and Fränder (EST-SWE) from abroad.
Tarmo Noormaa, program manager of Viljandi Folk Music Festival and director of Estonian Traditional Music Center, adds a comment about each performer: “ Ar-God first caught my ear at last year’s “Etnokulbid” awards where I heard a record full of pristine sounds and traditional songs performed with gracile improvisation. The fact that Nikns Suns was nominated as best metal album at this year’s Estonian Music Awards, is a very good example of folk music’s triumph in every genre. Fränder’s spark lies in their singer and flutist who is called Säde (spark in Estonian) and actually, the whole band has a wow effect to them. Maarja Nuut and Hendrik Kaljujärv have long time worked on a record which will come out in autumn, they will give a pre-presentation concert at our festival. Tanzhausgeiger is a band whose members have performed in different groups at our festival before. Their mission to combine dance and music is really inspiring and fascinating. Debi Gogochurebi is a group I first heard in Youtube couple of years ago. It is truly phenomenal how these Georgian women, sisters, sing much better than men! Hò-rò performed at Celtic Connection festival and those young scots charmed us instantly! Luckily for us, they agreed right away to come to Estonia and positively shake our audience. Kalàscima plays an especially interesting style of music - tarantella, a ritual dance used to heal a venomous tarantula bite. A truly intriguing group! Kadrievi orchestra comes from Macedonia where similar orchestras are family tradition. Kadrievi orchestra too has already been active for five generations and its leaders are still a father and a son.”
Sander Kahu, head of production of Viljandi Folk Music Festival and project manager of Estonian Traditional Music Center, is happy that youngsters have a chance to be inspired by older generation: “Especially awesome about this year’s festival is the fact that so many young performers are coming and alongside them we have the old well-known musicians as well. I’m really looking forward to the old-young and new-old symbiosis. I would specifically like to bring out the group Kalàscima who are already well-know for an experienced folk friend because they played at last year’s festival too. Kalàscima is also performing next week on 6th of April at Tallinn Music Week on the Viljandi Folk Music Festival Night that takes place at Vaba Lava performance center and starts at 19:30.”
119 days to go until the festival and plenty more interesting news to come! Soon we will start to announce the performers by days and the individual concert tickets and another batch of youngster’s passes will soon become available too. This year will bring together the younger generation of folk music professionals and future talents from home and abroad.
The Viljandi Folk Music Festival takes place on 26-29th of July 2018 in castle hills and town centre of Viljandi. The theme of this year’s festival is “Full on!”.
More information:
Heli Luik
NGO Estonian Traditional Music Center
Head Of Public Relations
+372 58 226 500
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