LEWISTON – The folk quartet Sattuma will bring spirited Finnish folk songs, romantic Russian waltzes and Scandinavian polkas to Bates College Sunday, Nov. 7. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Olin Concert Hall.

The musicians are Arto Rinne and his 14-year-old daughter, Eila, and Dima Demin and his 11-year-old son, Vlad.

They perform traditional dance melodies and songs of Russia and Finland on fiddles, accordion, clarinet, flutes, jaw harp, harmonica, Estonian bagpipes and the Finnish folk instruments known as the kantele and jouhikko.

Sattuma members are from Karelia, a region of Russia that borders Finland and retains a strong Finnish heritage. The group’s name comes from a Finnish word meaning either “happenstance” or “to hit the mark,” depending on how it’s used. Both meanings are appropriate, says Arto Rinne, since they started playing together for fun but soon found that there was a demand for their music, with its multigenerational appeal.

Bates College Russian professor Jane Costlow, who helped bring Sattuma to Bates last year, finds the band’s devotion to their Karelian roots intriguing and indicative of “the desire to reinvigorate creative and personal identity after the fall of the Soviet Union.” She describes the concert as a “rousing way to spend a darkening evening, and a reminder to us all as to why people at northern latitudes need music as the sun goes south.”

Admission to this family concert is $5, $3 for children, students and senior citizens. For reservations or more information, call 782-0386. Olin Arts Center is at 75 Russell St.

Copy the Story Link

Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.