ambience: accordion music
Every May, accordion players from Brooklyn to Stockholm, come to New Jersey to be part of a unique Scandinavian musical experience. I’m Jim Metzner and this is Pulse of the Planet. The Walter Eriksson Musikfest is a celebration of Scandinavian culture, drawing accordionists and other musicians from around the globe. Musicians take part in everything from a Marathon All Night Big Barn Dance to a folk music jamboree. Since 1993, Jeanne Eriksson Widman has hosted the festival in tribute to her late father.
“The immigrants that came over 150 years ago – they have passed on, and with each generation, the culture and the traditions – it gets a little diluted – you know. There are those who still love it. We are here to make sure that it continues.”
The Scandinavian Accordion Club of New York is one of the many groups performing at the festival. Band leader Arthur Carlson talks about the importance of the music in Scandinavian culture.
“If it wasn’t for Scandinavian music, I don’t think I would have met so many people in my life. And we of Swedish and Scandinavian origin get it from our parents – who get it from their parents, an so on. We try to keep Scandinavian culture alive in this country. Immigrations from Europe stopped maybe forty years ago or so. And all my relatives, from when I was a child – my mother, my father – we belong to Scandinavian organizations, but we are Americans, and that is for sure.”
The Walter Eriksson Musikfest takes place in Vasa Park, New Jersey over Memorial Day weekend.
Pulse of the Planet is presented by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.
music