Join us for a unique opportunity to hear the visiting Swedish-Finnish choir Akademiska Sångföreningen (The Academic Song Society) on stage.

This event is in partnership with The Swedish Finn Historical Society.

Swedish Club & The Swedish Finn Historical Society Members| $10

General Admission | $15

Seattle, WA, March 27, 2024— Akademiska Sångföreningen (Academic Singing Society), founded by Fredrik Pacius in 1838, have added a performance on April 16, 2024, 6:30 p.m., at Swedish Club in Seattle. The sixty-six-man choir performs all over the world. They are choral singing at the highest level and with a diverse palette—from great classics to original arrangements, from lyrical moods to manly pathos, from the deeply serious to the delightfully frivolous.

HISTORIC CHOIR

On May 13, 1848, university students gathered in a meadow near Helsinki for a spring celebration. A poem by Johan Ludwig Runeberg had been set to music and a choir gave the first performance of Vårt Land—now the national song of Finland. Student body chairman, Fredrik Cygnaeus, took the stage and gave a rousing speech ending with the toast, “To Finland.” After the toast the crowd broke into the second performance of Vårt Land. Independence would not come to Finland until 1917, but in that moment, Finland was born.

MEET ELISA HUOVENEN

Huovinen graduated as a choral conductor from the Sibelius Academy. In 2018, she won both the international Georghe Dima conducting competition and the Finnish conducting competition. Currently, she works as the artistic director of University of Turku Choir, Wiipuri Singing Association, and the Finnish Youth Choir. She has also acted as guest conductor for, among others, Transylvania Philharmonic Choir, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Estonian National Male Choir. She is also chairperson of the Finnish Choir Leaders’ Association.

Source: Swedish Finn Historical Society