Duo Scandinavica’s Jim Nelson and Lori Ann Reinhall will present a concert entitled “Unto the New World” on June 19 at 7 pm. The concert will take place in the Bishop Hill Colony School and include Swedish and Norwegian folk music, Scandinavian Vaudeville hits, and popular Scandinavian music. This wide variety of Scandinavian musical history spans from 1850– 1980.
Duo Scandinavica’s repertory covers the breadth of the Scandinavian-American musical tradition. Its creators, Jim Nelson and Lori Ann Reinhall, both have roots in the Scandinavian immigration. They have strong ties to musical communities in Scandinavia and North America. With the goal of preserving a pivotal selection of the Nordic musical treasure chest on both sides of the Atlantic, Duo Scandinavica has performed in Seattle, Tacoma, Chicago and Indianapolis in the US, and in Sweden, Norway and Iceland. Their CD “Emigrant” features 18 of these songs.
Jim Nelson grew up with his Norwegian-speaking father and family in the Midwest. He studied at Augustana College and the University of Wisconsin, and has a Ph.D in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Washington. He played accordion for Scandinavian “old-time” dances in Illinois and Wisconsin, and has sung and played in Edmonton and Viking, Alberta; Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; and San Francisco and Seattle in the US. Jim was Assistant Professor of Scandinavian Studies at colleges in Alberta and Minnesota. He has also taught at the University of Oslo, Norway, and the University of Washington in Seattle. He taught public school music in Norway for 15 years. Jim is a member of Svea Lodge 253, Vasa Order of America.
Lori Ann Reinhall was born and raised in Seattle. Her grandparents came from Blekinge, Sweden. She studied Scandinavian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington. There she and Jim began their musical collaboration. Lori Ann sang and played piano in Sweden, taught school in and near Vienna, Austria for 3 years and continued her music studies at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee. She was worked in software production for Microsoft and is currently assistant editor of the newspaper “The Norwegian-American” in Seattle.
The Bishop Hill Colony School is located at 304 Bishop Hill St., Bishop Hill, IL. For more information contact the Vasa National Archives at 309-927-3898 or at VasaArchivist@gmail.com .
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