The Aurora Ensemble
The Aurora Ensemble is a group that specializes in rare and forgotten music from 17th, 18th, and 19th century Scandinavia. Using everything from baroque strings to Swedish bagpipes, we bring this incredible repertoire to the United States.
Silentwoods Collective, The Scandinavian Cultural Society of Boston and the Village Bank present:
Midnight Sun:
Arias and Dance Music from Old Scandinavia
Saturday, August 19
7:00 p.m.
Nordic Hall, Scandinavian Cultural Center
206 Waltham St. West Newton, MA
Free admission, suggested donation $20
This event has passed. Missed the concert? View the livestream link here!
Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden receives her much-deserved New World premiere
With great excitement, we announce the New World premiere performance of Queen Ulrika Elenora's only surviving composition, Ade du Schnöde Welt on our upcoming concert. In addition, we will also give the New World premiere performance of the queen's best friend, Johanna Eleonora de la Gardÿ 's Welt ich Will Nichts. Both works are preserved on the same piece of manuscript paper in the Düben Collection in Uppsala, and it is our belief that they should be performed together. These premieres are made possible through collaboration with the University of Uppsala professor emeritus Bo Andersson.
The Aurora Ensemble
The Aurora Ensemble Collaborates with Uppsala Professor Emeritus, Scandinavian Society of Cincinnati, Silentwoods Collective, to premiere Maria Aurora von Königsmarck's Sacred Cantata in U.S.
It all began with a mysterious manuscript by the Swedish countess Maria Aurora von Königsmarck. A manuscript with no modern edition, no translation, or even a transcription, lying dormant in the Gothic cursive German that Aurora and her scribe Duben left it three hundred years before. Due to the notation, the work had never been heard on American soil–not until this past May when the Aurora Ensemble gave the New World premiere of the work in Cambridge, MA.
Bo Anderson, professor emeritus at the University of Uppsala where Aurora’s manuscript is preserved and one of Scandinavia’s most highly respected literary professors, is in the process of developing a transcription of Aurora’s book of poetry “Nordischer Werauch.” Certain that the text for O Großer Gott was included, we reached out to Professor Anderson. It was there, and the professor provided us with his unpublished transcription so we could premiere the piece. His transcription of Aurora's entire book is due to be published later this year.
After receiving a grant from the Scandinavian Society of Cincinnati for special instruments such as the viola d’amore and collaborating with several key players from the New Hampshire non-profit Silentwoods Collective, the Aurora Ensemble became the first group to play O Großer Gott in the New World–even using the original baroque instrumentation.
