Join us for a live storytelling and musical podcast performance this October with World Music Institute! Acclaimed folk storyteller Bill Gordh joins Finnish folk music group Kardemimmit for a series of Finnish folk stories, and modern folk music, including a special podcast recording for the WMI Folktales Podcast series. Musicians Maija Pokela, Jutta Rahmel, Anna Wegelius and Leeni Wegelius are singers and players of the kantele (the national instrument of Finland) in its 15- and 38-stringed forms. Their repertory of modern folk music draws from both Eastern and Western Finnish traditions and includes reki singing, both the Perhonjoki valley and the Karelian small kantele, and runo-song traditions.
In today’s program, the group will join storyteller Bill Gordh in an entirely improvised performance of Finnish folk traditions. This event will be recorded. Recommended for children ages 5+.
This event has been organized with World Music Institute with additional support provided by Finlandia Foundation National.
Kardemimmit is a Finnish folk music group formed by four young women: Maija Pokela, Jutta Rahmel, Anna Wegelius and Leeni Wegelius. They are singers and players of the kantele (the national instrument of Finland) in its 15 and 38 stringed forms. The group’s repertory consists of modern folk music mostly composed by the members themselves. The music of Kardemimmit is fresh but it’s strongly foundationed in Finnish tradition from both Eastern and Western regions featuring e.g. reki-style of singing, Perhonjoki valley kantele style, Karelian small kantele and runo-song traditions as well as archaic improvisation.
The group’s roots go back to the music school Juvenalia in Espoo, southern Finland where all of the members have studied. Kardemimmit has played together for over ten years. This long history can be heard as a unique sound in both the group’s singing and playing. As a kantele group Kardemimmit is a foregoer: in the year 2004 the Kantele Association chose the group as the kantele group of the year and the next year it won the national kantele group contest in its league. Kardemimmit was the group of the year in the Uusimaa-region in 2009 and 2010.
In Finland the group has played over a hundred concerts including at the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival, the Haapavesi Folk Festival, the Folklandia cruise as well as the Athletics World Championship gala. Kardemimmit’s debut album Viira was published in December 2006. The second album, Kaisla, came out during fall 2009. Kaisla was also re-released as a bonus disc of The Rough Guide to the Music of Scandinavia in 2012 as Introducing Kardemimmit. Their third album Autio huvila released in 2012 continues with their original musical style combining song and the kantele and was chosen as the Folk Music Album of the Year 2012 by the Finnish Folk Music Association.
Anna and Leeni currently study folk music pedagogy in the Central Ostrobothnia University of Applied Sciences, whereas Maija and Jutta study in the folk music department of the Sibelius Academy. Each studies with kantele as main instrument.
Bill Gordh is an award-winning Banjo-playing storyteller, author, educator, early childhood and elementary literacy specialist and consultant. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, at the Gerald Ford Amphitheatre in Vail, CO, the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum in Houston, TX, The American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and The Clearwater Festival. In addition to these performances, he has also been a featured storyteller at The White House Easter Egg Roll in Washington D.C. for three years.