“The Kantele and the Virsikannel,” a summer festival of sacred music, found unexpected continuation on February 10-11, 2024!Mikael Agricola Choir from Sts. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church of Vyborg, Leningrad Oblast, did a concert tour in Ladoga Karelia, a region in NW Russia.
The choir is currently reviving the tradition of singing to a virsikannel (psalmodicon), a version of the kantele with one string used by the region’s Lutherans in the 19th century as a tool to learn church hymns.
The program included two pieces from the Taiga Mass (or Korpimessu in Finnish) and the biblical Riddle Song of Ingrian seamstresses composed/compiled by pastor, poet, musician, folklore researcher, ethnographer and bard Rev. Arvo Survo, kantele folk tunes, Lutheran hymns from the 16th and 17th centuries, and pieces from the Kalevala, the national epic of Karelia and Finland.
The choir gave concerts at the ELCIR churches in Sortavala, Läskelä, and Pitkyaranta. The instruments included thirteen 5-string kanteles, a virsikannel, a Celtic harp, and hand bells. After the concert, anyone from the audience could take the instruments in hand and play them.
The trip included meeting new people, making new friends, and reconnecting with old ones!
Information courtesy of Darya Shkurlyatyeva, choir director, Mikael Agricola Choir
Photos by Rev. Andrei Antonov, Rev. Oleg Menaker, Olga Smirnova-Onuyeva
