Histories and Herstories at Orkney International Science Festival 4th Sept

©Martin Stewart

I hope you have enjoyed our series on women composers. I am delighted to announce that we will be presenting the full programme in an online video performance for Orkney International Science Festival on 4th September at 20:30 BST:

Nordic Viola reflects on female experience of landscapes and community from the Northern Isles to Greenland in music by women composers for string quartet. Highlights include ‘Machair’ by Highland composer Lisa Robertson and music influenced by Orcadian history and the Hardanger fiddle style by Gemma McGregor. Greenland’s only classical composer, Arnannguaq Gerstrøm, reflects on winter whilst English composer Lillie Harris depicts the full fury of a Shetland storm. Anna Appleby’s evocative ‘Hrakningar’ includes migrating geese from Iceland, and American Jocelyn Hagen offers a new take on the haunting Icelandic lullaby ‘Sofðu Unga’. There are new tunes reflecting on motherhood and the wild Orcadian weather by traditional fiddlers Margaret Robertson (Shetland) and Fiona Driver (Orkney)

As well as the music, you can meet many of our composers talking about the themes and landscapes that inspire their work and, indeed, see some of those landscapes for yourself in the beautiful video work put together by Craig Sinclair Video. We’re also joined in performance by two students from Tórshavn Music School in the Faroe Islands.

As Orkney International Science Festival celebrates Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters 2020 there are many more virtual events to enjoy, including more concerts and performances, virtual outings and foraging, food and drink, exhibitions and talks. Why not join Nordic Viola and immerse yourself in a week of Orcadian culture?

After you have enjoyed our performance on 4th September, if you would like to support us in paying our musicians and composers fairly and also help us extend our reach through education work, you can donate the price of a coffee (or more if you’d like to!) at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/NordicViola or paypal.me/katherinewren1

In partnership with UHI’s Institute of Northern Studies and funded by Creative Scotland, Ambache Charitable Trust, RVW Trust and the Year of Coasts and Waters.

Raising the profile of music by women

Histories and Herstories Composers Part 9

Fiona Driver

Fiona Driver

I first met fiddle player Fiona Driver when she and husband Trevor Hunter, (one of Shetland’s most respected fiddlers) came to Nordic Viola’s concert with Gemma McGregor in Kirkwall,  Orkney and subsequent after-party. Fiona and Trevor are two of the most open-minded musicians I know, enjoying traditional, classical and contemporary music and generously passing on their love of music to the younger generation.

The morning after the concert I got to appreciate Fiona’s playing first hand as we had a session with Gemma playing through reams of Orkney tunes. And so I got to learn a little more about the most famous Orkney tune-writers as well as learning about fiddle style by playing alongside Fiona.

Fiona is a fine tune-writer in her own right. I always think the mark of a good melody is one that’ll stand on its own with no accompaniment and possibly also one that’ll transfer across instruments. Both of these things struck me immediately when I heard Fiona play “Suilven,” named after the iconic mountain in NW Scotland, accompanied  by a lone F# pedal point.

“Wild November”, which we play in our “Histories and Herstories” programme, is another such tune. Written after a wild November storm, Fiona herself said that this tune just flowed out in one go.  Distinctive and energetic, by turns slow and languid and driving and dancelike it seems to ooze the enjoyment and total absorption in her music-making that’s so apparent in Fiona’s performing. You can hear Fiona performing with Nordic Viola here:

Fiona also put together a CD “Orkney at Dawn” which grew out of her degree project with UHI. This CD is a beautiful record of Orkney’s extraordinarily diverse birdlife and is also incredibly soothing to listen to.

Histories and Herstories Composers Part 8

Arnannguaq Gerstrøm

Arnannguaq Gerstrøm

I met Arnannguaq Gerstrøm when I was in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, in February 2017. Arnannguaq is an accomplished flautist, conductor and composer. She grew up in the Greenlandic towns of Ilulissat (by the World Heritage Site of Disko Bay, famed for its icebergs issuing from the Ice Fjord) and Nuuk, where she now lives.

As well as being a fine musician, Arnannguaq is also a great and eloquent ambassador for her country. I spent many absorbing hours talking to her over fabulous homecooked food about Greenland’s music and music-makers. We also talked about many aspects of life in modern Greenland in this increasingly outward-looking country. Whilst Greenland is modernising at a rapid pace, it is also proud of its culture and traditions.

On returning to Scotland, I commissioned Arnannguaq to write a piece for viola, flute and bassoon as a companion piece to Faroese composer Kári Bæk’s “Vár Trio.” Vár means Spring and Arnannguaq chose to write Ukioq (Winter). Inspired by the spirit, nature and forces of winter in the Arctic surroundings of Greenland. The early Inuit believed that nature was endowed with the spirits. Every single stone, piece of straw, animal and organism was alive and had a soul. They also believed that the human soul could migrate from animal to animal, and this led to a lot of imaginative stories.

People often think of Arctic winters as being harsh and inhospitable and of course they can be exactly that. However, what I love about Arnannguaq’s piece is that, as well as mimicking the sounds of wind and ice, she illustrates the “sparkle” of a Greenlandic winter – the crystal clear days I remember from my time there, where the bright snow contrasts with the sapphire blue of the sea and the pale blue arctic sky, the sheer joy of being outside in the lengthening days of late winter absorbing the beauty of the landscape around me.

Arnannguaq finds inspiration in nature and once spent 4 nights on icecap along with 30 Greenlandic dogs, collecting material for her works.

Ukioq was premiered in Dunblane Cathedral in October 2017 and later performed as part of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s Chamber Series in January 2018, with the composer present at the performance on a weekend where we even managed to summon up some Greenlandic weather for Arnannguaq: temperatures down to minus 10C and knee-high snow.

As with many of the female composers in this “Histories and Herstories” series, Arnannguaq has played a leading role in her community. After her studies abroad, Arnannguaq moved back to Greenland. From 2004-2014 she worked at the Musikskolen in Nuuk which she led for a while. The music school continues to thrive and has expanded to the East of the country, with a branch in Tasiilaq. As well as providing a musical education, it also has an important social function for its young students.

In 2013 Arnannguaq was appointed Cultural Ambassador of Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq and in 2014 she was accepted in the Far North artist network as a composer. In 2014 she also founded the Erinniat Ensemble in Greenland with the purpose of performing new music.

Her list of works includes compositions for orchestra, ensemble, choir and solo pieces. In 2016 three of her works were premiered in the Tivoli Koncertsal, Copenhagen and chosen from among more than 500 submitted works to be performed at the Harpa concert hall in Reykjavik at the 2016 Nordic Music Days.

In her compositions Arnannguaq explores her mixed roots from Europe and the Inuit culture, transforming the rhythm and melodies into completely new soundscapes.

As  with many island women I’ve met during my project, alongside her career in music, Arnannguaq holds a number of business positions, including being managing director of the family company Usisaat and co-owning the companies AJLA Nordic and MATU security. She sets great store in these posts in developing her staff – much as she did previously with her charges in the music school.

If you enjoyed listening to Arnannguaq’s Trio, try listening to her orchestral piece “Seqinniarfik”, which depicts the first sunrise after a long winter in Ilulissat.