A young Southport folk group travel to Finland

Southport folk group travel to Finland

This month, a group of young people from the Southport and Ormskirk areas will travel to Finland to perform at one of the most important and historic folk music festivals in Europe.

The Southport String Ensemble (SSE) will join thousands of amateur and professional musicians and dancers from around the world at the Kaustinen Folk Festival, 2017. SSE will perform their range of Celtic folk tunes alongside their Finnish counterpart, a string group called the Vuosaari Music School.  The two string orchestras have forged links over the past 2 years. They first performed together in Helsinki in 2015. In 2016 Southport Strings welcomed 56 young Finnish musicians to the town for another joint performance.

The Southport String Ensemble, a group of young people aged between 9 and 18, will travel to Helsinki and Kaustinen with musical director Sarah Marks and a small group of parents, who have dusted off their own instruments to perform with the group.  In addition to performing their usual mix of Scottish, Irish and English folk music, the recent link with Finland has brought many Scandinavian tunes into Southport Strings’ repertoire.

Sarah Marks says ”this music tour is a wonderful opportunity for these young people to experience the culture and music of Finland and to make friends with some of our Scandinavian neighbours.”