Friday, October 4, 2013

Twin Cities' Leiv Eriksson Festival Offers Top-Notch Entertainment

Uranienborg Vocal Ensemble
The highlight of my week was hearing Oslo's Uranienborg Vocal Ensemble, (UraVok) when they performed in St. Olaf College's Boe Chapel last night. The 20-piece choir is currently touring the state. Tonight the group performs at Mindekirken, the Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church, as part of the Minneapolis Leiv Eriksson International Festival. The ensemble will perform at services at Immanuel Lutheran Church of Eden Prairie on the morning of Sunday, Oct. 5, and will give a 6 p.m. concert at the church that evening. (If you live outside the Twin Cities metro, you're still in luck: Last night's 80-minute concert is archived on St. Olaf's website.)

UraVok isn't the only top-notch Norwegian group to come to Minnesota for the festival. Two weeks of concerts and events were kicked off by trumpeter Kai Robert Johansen. The comedic duo of Uppstad and Waade from Rogaland, Norway will also entertain audiences at the Danish American Center and Mindekirken on Oct. 6 and 8, respectively.

PATINA
The festival comes to a close with a performance of PATINA, which makes its U.S. premiere at Pantages Theater in downtown Minneapolis. Comprised of 27 rural Norwegian women aged 70 to 80, PATINA "celebrates the beauty, strength, wisdom, and experience of the daughters and granddaughters of the women who fought for and won the right to vote in Norway exactly 100 years ago." (Read more about Norway's celebration of women's suffrage in the June issue of Viking!)

Amy Boxrud is editor of Viking magazine. She lives with her family in Northfield, Minn., where she’s a member of Nordmarka 1-585.


1 comment:

Erik Pappa said...

Wish we could get Patina in Vegas.