One of Kokkola Winter Accordion XXIII closing weekend’s most captivating events is without a doubt Friday evening’s Love and Poetry Club, whose Master of Ceremonies is, of course, Keke Lammassaari.
“Love and Poetry Club is where theatre, poetry and accordion meet and that means good music,” says Mr. Lammassaari.
Four theatre students from Kälviä Arts have planned a solo performance especially for the evening. They’ve also chosen a poem that has inspired them on which to base their own text for the performance. Accordion artist Julia Hansson will serenade the show and interact with performers with a little musical improvisation.
“Julia hasn’t attended any practices. Nor has she seen the performance before. I have known her for more than 10 years and we have collaborated on many projects together. She has always been brave and good at creating soundscapes, and has tremendous talent and artistic insight. These already were her strengths more than ten years ago when she was a very young artist,” says Mr. Lammassaari.
“One of the students is a dancer. She has chosen a poem that is really suited to dance,” says Mr. Lammassaari, who has worked with the students during the past week.
“It’s a great feeling. We have a positive and productive week behind us. The practices have gone well and it has been fantastic to watch their development,” he says.
Pränttärit and Balalaituri
Lammassaari has worked with theatre students in Kälviä earlier and each time the projects get more and more impressive. During last year’s Winter Accordion Love and Poetry Club featured two students. This year there are four. Let’s see what happens next year. The poetry performance with accordion improvisation will take roughly a half hour. Next comes more poems, this time courtesy of Pränttärit from Central Ostrobothnia. The one-and-a-half-hour performance ends with Duo Balalaitari, consisting of Eino Kolppanen and Jonathan Bonn.
“I’m going to perform vocals as a soloist in a couple of their tunes,” says Mr. Lammassaari, adding about the writer association Präntärit:“From the association we’ll have at least Mikko Malm and possibly also the chairman Joni Vähä-Lassila. Julia will also take part in Mikko’s performance. Then will we really hear a conversation between poetry and accordion.”