LEIF Minnesota

03/27/2026

The Strøget shopping street in the heart of Copenhagen, Denmark 🇩🇰

03/18/2026

Very excited for this May 2nd!!

03/16/2026

Rose Hellat, the Estonian rep of the LEIF committee, put me on to this--you may be interested, too--here's another instrument from Northern Europe I did not know about, the talharpa.....https://www.hopkinsartscenter.com/m/newsflash/home/detail/343

02/16/2026

news flash: a "new" additions to the ethnic groups taking part in LEIF: Estonia! we're happy to announce that Rose Hellat has joined the LEIF committee and that the Festival will now include some Estonia content. You can read about the Nordic-Baltic 8 here:

Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) is a regional co-operation format that includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden.

02/14/2026

The Leif Eriksson committee announces the theme for this coming October's Festival: Immigration/Assimilation: what we keep and what we lose. What elements of a home country's culture are preserved in the new country? what elements are lost? how does that happen? and, even, what elements are retrieved? You know what retrieval is: that's when you go back and study the Norwegian language that your grandparents spoke but your parents didn't!

11/01/2025

in the cover photo, after the concert of Finnish and Latvian Music in 20205, are, from left to right, organist Kristina Ziema Rizzotto, bass-baritone David Fillman, pianist Craig Randall Johnson, and Ilze Larsen (Pastor of the Latvian Church in Minneapolis)

11/01/2025

The closing service went well, and the flag recessional came off without a hitch (thought the Swedish flag-bearer was not Swedish!). Here's to next year's LEIF -- stay tuned her for news.

10/26/2025

At the Danish American Center event today Ruth Jakobsen Patzloff made delicious cookies from the nineteenth century, during the time Grieg spent in Copenhagen -- what a treat!