Welcome to the 28th Annual

Leiv Eriksson International Festival (L.E.I.F.) Explore — Discover — Celebrate

A fall celebration Sept. 27—Oct. 13, 2015 based at Mindekirken—

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota Building a cultural bridge

between today’s Nordic countries and the United States

Concert co-sponsored with The Edvard Grieg Society Funded in part by the Marolyn Halverson Memorial Fund

Mr. Alver is distinguished by his focus on the compositions of Edvard Grieg. He has recorded two albums of Grieg’s work: one at the composer’s own 1892 Steinway grand piano, and the other at the new concert hall at the Edvard Grieg Museum, Troldhaugen, in Bergen, Norway. (Alver continued on p. 9)

Fri., Oct. 9, 2015 Piano Concert

Rune Alver

from Norway

7:30 p.m. at Mindekirken

Reception follows

sugg. donation $15 at the door

Mindekirken 924 E 21st St., Minneapolis, Minnesota

Sun., September 27, 2015 Opening L.E.I.F. Norwegian Worship Service at 11 am Preacher: Rev. Andrés Albertsen. Danish sermon with English translation

Music by Rennebu Songkor (Rennebu Community Choir) & Kai Robert Johansen on trumpet

Greetings: Honorary Consul for Royal Danish Consulate, Rikke A. Dierssen-Morice Mayor Ola T. Lånke from Rennebu kommune (municipality)

Organist: Jessica Schroeder Liturgist: Rev. Kristin Sundt LEIF Coffee hour ($5 donation) menu: Krumkaker, Danish kringle,

Icelandic herring salad on dark bread, Finnish bread with cheese, Swedish meatballs

Kai Robert Johansen (left) has been per-forming on trumpet for 45 years. He has been seen on radio and TV in Norway, throughout Europe and the United States. He has been headlining at the Nordic Fest in Decorah, Iowa, for the last six years and has also performed at Høstfest in Minot, North Dakota. Kai Robert has re-ceived several Norwegian cultural awards for his work, not only as a performer but also as a composer.

Rev. Andrés Roberto Albertsen (right), was

ordained by the Church of Denmark and served the Danish Church in Buenos Aires. Albertsen is

Argentinian, with four Danish grandparents who immigrated to Argentina in the twenties and

thirties. He came to the U.S. in 2011 and is pursu-ing a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology at Luther Semi-nary. In June this year, he was admitted to the roster of ordained ministers of the Evangelical

Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Saint Paul

Area Synod (Minnesota).

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Rennebu Community Choir

More than 50 Norwegians from the Rennebu area, including the choir, are on tour to follow in the footsteps of the emigrants from Rennebu in Sør-Trønde-lag county, Norway. The main area where they settled in the USA is the Red River Valley, on the border between Minnesota and North Dakota, south of Fargo, North Dakota. The choir will give concerts in River Falls, Wisconsin,

Fargo, and Abercrombie, North Dakota. They will attend Norsk Høstfest in Minot, North Dakota, and also visit Mount Rushmore and the South Dakota Badlands. On their way back to the Twin Cities they will visit an Austin, MN church built by settlers from their home town of Rennebu.

Rigmor Aas has directed the Rennebu Community Choir for the last 15 years.

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Rikke Dierssen-Morice, the new Honorary

Consul of Denmark in Minneapolis, is a partner in the law firm Faegre Baker Daniels and a life- time member of the Danish American

Community through her family. She is fluent in Danish, English and French.

Ola T. Lånke (Mayor of Rennebu) is traveling with the choir on their tour. Lånke is a Church of Norway ordained pastor as well as a former member of the Storting (Norwegian parliament.)

He is accompanied on this tour by his wife Berit, who is also an ordained pastor.

Mindekirken 924 E 21st St., Minneapolis, Minnesota

Saturday, October 3, 2015 Vikings Seminar by John Yilek

9 am – 12/noon at Mindekirken Presentation — Vikings: From Lindisfarne to Leiv Eriksson

This presentation includes information about Leiv Eriksson and the Norse discovery of America. This class is one of 3 Saturday seminars offered by Mindekirken Norwegian Language and Culture Program (MNLCP) on the History of Norway. This semi-nar is presented in English. Cost: $20 for one or $45 for 3 ses-sions. Register at www.mnlcp.org. (see p. 8 for more on Yilek)

Sunday, October 4, 2015 11 am LEIF Worship Service with Holy Communion

Preacher: Rev. Christine Anttila from Duluth, MN. English sermon Greeting: Honorary Consul for the Republic of Finland, K. Marianne Wargelin Music by The Mindekirken Choir, directed By John De Haan Organist: Jessica Schroeder Liturgist: Rev. Kristin Sundt LEIF Coffee hour follows in the Fellowship Hall ($5 donation for food)

The Mindekirken Choir

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Rev. Christine (Matta) Anttila was born and raised in a family of ten in northern Minne-sota, and has been a parish pastor in the Duluth area since her ordination in the ELCA in 2001. She has served Our Savior's Luther-an Church in West Duluth since 2010.

Tues., October 6, 2015

Tuesday Open House at Mindekirken 12:00 p.m. Concert Preview with Pianist Rune Alver from Norway (see cover page photo and more on page 9) $7 donation also includes lunch, served 11—11:30 a.m. Funded with help from the Marolyn Halverson Memorial Fund

Sat., October 10, 2015 2, 4, & 6:00 p.m.

This year, the Norwegian Glee Club of Minneapolis will have their Fall Lutefisk Dinner at Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Hopkins, 715 Minnetonka Mills Road

$20 per person, prepay by Oct. 2 Watch www.norwegiangleeclub.com for ordering details.

K. Marianne Wargelin grew up in three Finnish American communities: Berkeley, CA, Fairport Har-bor, OH, and Hancock, MI. She has been the Honor-ary Consul for the Republic of Finland in the Twin Cities since 1999 and President of FinnFest USA since 2004. She is a graduate of Suomi College (Hancock, MI), Augustana College (Rock Island, IL), and University of Michigan. She researches and

publishes work which studies small cultures within Western Culture, particularly Finnish American and Finland. That subject defines her Ph.D. dissertation, now in its final stages at the University of Tampere in Finland.

Rev. Anttila earned her B.S. in Social Work (1984) from Bemidji State Univer-sity, Bemidji, MN and a Master of Divinity degree from Luther Seminary (2001) in St. Paul, MN. Her seminary internship year (1999-2000) was spent at the Turku Cathedral International Congregation located in southwest Fin-land. This internship was co-sponsored by the Finnish American Cultural

Association and the Lutheran Church of Finland. Aside from ministry,

Christine's spirit finds refreshment in quiet and simple pleasures like berry picking, bicycling, and baking pies.

5 Mindekirken 924 E 21st St., Minneapolis, Minnesota

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Folkemusikkmesse

For the second time, a folk music worship service (folkemusikkmesse) will

be held at Mindekirken as part of LEIF. The melodies at this service are as

important as the lyrics because they give us a taste of the rich folk tune

tradition found in the Norwegian hymnal. The liturgy is written by Arne Rodvelt Olsen, composed in the spirit of Norwegian folk tunes.

The American Swedish Institute Spelmanslag of Minneapolis, Minnesota is a group of fiddlers who play Swedish folk music mostly from eastern Dalarna. The group traces its beginnings to the fiddler Ivares Edwin Johnson, who left Rättvik, Sweden, as a nineteen year old in 1924. He brought traditional music with him to Minneapolis, found a fiddling companion from his home village, raised his family, and passed his music on to his children and grand-children. The Spelmanslag has many active members of all ages, many with Swedish or other Scandinavian heritage.

Sun., October 11, 2015 L.E.I.F. Closing Worship Service

11 am Folk Music Worship Service

Preacher: Rev. Eygló Bjarnadóttir (Icelandic) English sermon

Greeting: Honorary Vice Consul, Royal Norwegian Consulate General, Christina Carleton Fiddle Music: American Swedish Institute Spelmanslag Organist: Jessica Schroeder Liturgist: Rev. Kristin Sundt English transcripts will be available from the ushers. Delicious Nordic treats will be served following the service in the Fellowship Hall. ($5 donation for food)

Sun., October 11, 5:00 p.m. Music — Song — Humor

Three Guys from Rogaland! at the Danish American Center, 3030 W River Parkway S, Minneapolis

$15 per person at the door, includes a light meal

Prepare for an awesome and entertaining evening with three very talented guys from Stavanger, Norway. Per Henning Uppstad and Odd Ragnar Waade Ommundsen, a well known duo in western Norway, represent a new kind of storyteller — the kind who doesn’t take cheap shots at others. Rather, they put words and music together to represent the small things in life, occasional-ly frustrating or absurd and so small that they may be experienced in only fleeting moments, moments to which we all can relate. Their performance will mostly be in English.

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Rev. Eygló Bjarnadóttir has served as a Spiritual Care Counselor for the

Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation in Center City,

Minnesota for the past twelve years. Eygló was born in Iceland and grew up in a small fishing village on the west coast. She studied Theology at the Univer-sity of Iceland in Reykjavik and holds a M.Div. de-gree. Eygló is an ordained minister in the ELCA. Be-fore immigrating to the US in 2002 she worked as a counselor in Denmark treating heroin addicts.

In her work for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Eygló provides individualized and group spiritual counseling for Health Care Professionals and extend-

ed care clients. Eygló is married and has five children and nine grandchildren.

Christina Helen Carleton has worked at the Norwegian Consulate for 7 years as Vice Consul for Norway.

Originally from Norway, she came here to study at the University of Minnesota. Born in Oslo, she grew up in Paris, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, Washington DC, and speaks 4 different languages. Christina took her first posting with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Albania as an intern which turned into the position she holds today at the Consulate in Minneapolis.

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Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015 Tuesday Open House

at Mindekirken 11—11:30 a.m. Lunch

12:00—1 p.m. History of Norway

presentation by the author John Yilek $7 suggested donation

includes food and program

Stillwater author and Norwegian history instructor John Yilek (left) will give us a mini-course on Norway's history from the

Stone Age to the present, and describe his new book called History of Norway. This program will feature interesting stories about the Vikings, a famous Sami legend, Pesta and the Black Death, how a reindeer discovered copper near Røros, the heavy water sabotage in World War II, and much more!

Uppstad & Waade (right) perform music inspired by Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon and James Taylor, with their humor inspired by Charlie Chaplin. They truly bridge all

generations.

The third member of the dynamic trio is Kjell Inge Torgersen, (left) who combines his extraordinary musicality with playful humor. He’s a musician, singer, composer and lyricist.

This program is an exceptional opportunity to experience contemporary Norwegian music and lively storytelling.

Photo by Paul Dols

of the St. Croix Valley Area Lowdown

Rune Alver will play music of Frédéric Chopin and Edvard Grieg as Grieg is known to have been inspired by Chopin’s music. We will also hear music by Norwegian composers Geir Tveitt, Harald Sæverud, David Monrad Johansen and Johannes M. Rivertz. These composers all endured the German

occupation of Norway during WWII. We will hear their stories from Rune

Alver. One composer was extremely upset and wrote the Ballad of Revolt which he dedicated to the Norwegian resistance movement. Another was accused of being a Nazi sympathizer. A third was a Nazi sympathizer. And a fourth helped put events of WWII in a larger framework following the post-war trials, as he also was a lawyer in addition to being a composer. CD’s by Rune Alver will be for sale before and after the concerts.

Rune Alver was born in Bergen, Norway, and made his debut at age 20. He earned degrees from the Bergen Music Conservatory and the Norwegian Academy of Music before going to Paris to continue his studies with pianist Vlado Perlemuter. Mr. Alver is a freelance musician who performs around the world. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2013.

Norwegian Pianist Rune Alver in two performances at Mindekirken

Tues., October 6 Noon - Concert Preview (A Tuesday Open House event — see p. 5)

Fri., October 9 at 7:30 p.m. Feature Concert & Reception

suggested donation $15 at the door

9 Mindekirken 924 E 21st St., Minneapolis, Minnesota

About the Festival

The Leiv Eriksson International Festival (L.E.I.F.) was formed in 1987 under the leadership of Pastor John Mauritzen, Mindekirken (The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church in Minneapolis) and members of the Danish, Finnish, Ice-landic, Norwegian, Sámi and Swedish communities to establish an annual

festival to celebrate Nordic cultural roots in the United States. Over the years, L.E.I.F. events have brought top-ranked Nordic talent to Minneapolis. This helps us all explore the values and goals of today’s Nordic countries and share them with other Nordic Americans. It also gives the Nordic community an opportunity to share its heritage with all citizens.

The Leiv Eriksson International Festival is brought to you, in part, by the

following Nordic organizations: American Swedish Institute, Danish American Center, The Edvard Grieg Society/Norway House, Finlandia Foundation,

Icelandic American Association of Minnesota, Mindekirken, Nordmanns

Forbundet/Norwegians Worldwide, Sámi Siida of North America, Sons of

Norway and by private donations.

For more information about the Festival, contact Mindekirken The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church 924 East 21st Street Minneapolis, MN 55404

Block of E. Franklin Ave. at 10th Ave. S. next to Norway House (handicap accessible from Franklin side parking lot) Phone 612.874.0716 Church website: www.mindekirken.org

L.E.I.F. website: www.leifmn.org

Members of the L.E.I.F. Committee:

Erik Bruun, Denmark

Dagmar Runyon, Denmark

Gilbert Kinnunen, Finland

Dianne O’Konski, Iceland

Lynda Johnson, Norway

Darlene Nordos, Norway

John Xavier, Sámi (SSNA)

Jack Anderson, Sweden

George Hoyum, Treasurer

Kristin Sundt, Chair

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Norwegian Threads is an exhibition featuring the work of textile artist Lise Skjåk Bræk and painter Anne Langsholt Apaydinli. Both Norwegian women honor their cultural heritage through artistic efforts inspired by traditional folk patterns and costumes.

Norway House Hours: • Monday: Closed • Tuesday – Saturday: 10 AM – 4 PM • Sunday: 11 AM – 3 PM

For more info. see www.norwayhouse.org or call 612.871.2211

Norway House

is located at

913 E. Franklin Ave.,

Minneapolis, MN,

on the same block

as Mindekirken.

Sept. 27—Oct. 13, 2015

American Swedish

Institute (ASI)

is located at

2600 Park Avenue

Minneapolis, MN,

less than 1 mile

from Mindekirken.

ASI hours: • Tues.- Fri. 12 – 5 p.m.

Wednesday 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. • Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. • Sunday 12 – 5 p.m. • Monday closed

Admission: Free for Norway House members • $6 Adults • $5 Seniors 65+ • $4 Ages 2-18

Admission: •$9 adults •$7 ages 62 and above •$5 ages 6-18 and full-time students with ID

•Free for ASI members and kids ages 5 and under

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DAC– Danish American

Center

The 2015 Leiv Eriksson International Festival is brought to you by:

www.leifmn.org