A few of my favourite tunes. Janet is a long-time Skandia participant and a current Skandia board member. She lives in Vancouver, where she plays the nyckelharpa and fiddle and enjoys dancing and teaching dance. Do you see that beautiful instrument she is playing here? She made it herself! 

Nyckelharpas North of the Border.  Lynn Erickson and Janet Gabites have played music together in Vancouver for years in a band called Sammenspil. We have been delighted to have Janet and Lynn play for our virtual Skandia dances a couple of times this year! 

We are a trio from Vancouver, enjoying playing good dance music.

www.vcn.bc.ca/scandi

The Coastal Birds consist of Emma Anderson and Martha Levenson, who have a long history of playing beautiful music together, including many years in the band Skolkis.  Emma began playing Scandinavian music while studying at Stockholm University in 2007.  She loves most Nordic music, but is particularly partial to tunes that come from the south of Sweden in the region of Småland. Martha is a passionate fiddler on both the flat fiddle and the hardingfele. She enjoys playing music from all the Nordic countries and, in particular, loves to play for dancing. 

Marissa Essad and Phil Wilkenson are Duet Friends.  They play three tunes for you this year:

1. Elmer’s Waltz, a Swedish waltz transcribed by Bill Boyd

2. Ganglåt efter Nikles Niklasson

3. Tommy's Schottis

Phil Wilkenson plays fiddle and hardingfele and leads the group Tinnfelen.  Marissa also plays with the Metro Gnomes.

Brian and Nola Nelson along with Kris Johansson of Sprida Ut sing and play several tunes for Midsommar.

Formed at Holden Village during a Nordiska Folk Dancers retreat over 10 years ago, Sprida Ut enjoys playing traditional folk music from Scandinavia with their own flavor, and continuing to showcase the Nyckelharpa.  Contact: Brian Nelson 425-530-2171 (message ok)

Brian: nyckelharpa, vocals

Nola:  guitar, vocals

Kris:  fiddle, vocals

Dansaspel from Bellingham WA is presently a 4-member group - Carol Olson on fiddle; Collin Topolski on fiddle, accordion, guitar & clarinet; Robin Brown on fiddle & octave fiddle; and Susan Curley on electronic keyboards. The group plays both Swedish & Norwegian bygdedans music along with gammaldans and mixers. Sheet music can be found here. For more Swedish music videos, go here, many historic videos of famous Swedish fiddlers.

This video is from May 2014 at the Cedar Valley Grange in Lynnwood, WA.

Folk Voice Band plays:  Vaara Viitonen, from Finland, Seattle Polka (at Seattle Folklife Festival 2019), & Humppa Medley (at Seattle Folklife Festival 2019)

Folk Voice Band has been in the Northwest since 1990 performing at Midsomar and Folklife Festival for the last 30 years. 

Duo, Trio or Ensemble

Scandinavian, Continental, Balkan or International

We are as versatile with our music as we are with our instrumentation!

Birgit @ (206) 947-8393 or Philip @ (206) 368-9720

Hale Bill and the Bopps, a great Scandinavian band from the Seattle area, consists of five talented musicians, Bill and Gina Boyd, Leslie Foley, Irene Myers, and Mary Nelson. They send us virtual musical greetings for this Midsommarfest. Hale Bill and the Bopps first came together in 1997 while comet Hale Bopp was streaking across the sky. 

2021 new video.  Aren't those rhodies lovely?

Band members include:

Fiddles: Marissa Essad, Trella Hastings, Kris Johansson

Bass: Michael Moore

Cello: Aaron Nation

We play for Scandinavian folk dances and other performances. We are an open group of musicians who usually rehearse on Sunday evenings 7-9 pm at the Swedish Club.  Everyone is welcome to bring their acoustic instrument to join us.  Currently we are rehearsing on ZOOM. 

Send an email for the link.

Contact: SeattleSpelmanslag@gmail.com