Musical Instruments of the World: Riina Hellsten and Jadviga Mežniece

Riina Hellsten is a Finnish kantele player, singer and composer from Helsinki. Currently she studies Nordic folk music in the University of Arts, Helsinki. In her work she uses different kanteles, all the way from 5-string kantele to 10-string and the concert kantele and utilises different folk traditions for inspiration and arrangement. Jadviga Mežniece is a Latvian 12-string kokle player, composer, improviser and a Folk music student at the Sibelius academy. From a lifetime spent surrounded by the songs and melodies of the thriving folk tradition in Latgale region, her roots are in Latgalian kokle playing, but she seeks to expand the use and repertoire of the kokle by exploring playing traditions of related instruments such as the Finnish kantele and creating her own compositions. The program will feature both artists playing solo and as a duo, forming a cultural dialogue between two countries, connected through their similarities and celebrating differences. In the performance the listeners will experience traditional and arranged folk tunes from Finland and Latvia as well as original compositions, performed on different types of kanteles and Latvian 12-string kokle. This event session supported by Taike. The “Musical Instruments of the World” project is curated and produced by Melisa Yıldırım.