Saana Ensemble Recording Project 2011
Dear Friend,
We have had a great year and the future looks bright! Our year of singing started in January at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. We cannot but be amazed by the magic of singing Finnish hymns in a Catholic church in America. This was our fourth time in Basilica and we were very pleased to be asked back there for the fifth time in November. March was a busy month for us. We were honored to sing at the church service and reception honoring Martti Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, at Christ Church Lutheran as part of Nobel Peace Prize commemoration festivities, an Augsburg College tradition. In January and March we performed with Ameriikan Poijat brass band during its 20th anniversary season. In May, we gave a concert at St. Paul’s-on-the Hill Episcopal Church featuring our frequent partner, the magnificent violinist Sara Pajunen, and in December we returned to New York Mills Cultural Center for the fourth time! We made many new friends participating in Sample Night Live in May. To our surprise (!), we were voted as the Audience Favorite that night and were invited to sing in SNL special event in December.
We want to extend a huge and humble thank you to all of you who enjoy our music and have shown interest in what we do. We wouldn’t be singing without you. Our big news is that we are going to record a new CD in January of 2011! We are all immigrants and our mission is to promote the music we grew up listening to in Finland, as well as promote current and contemporary renditions of Finnish folk music. The feedback of our new material (most of it arranged by our own Elina Kala) has been very positive. For our recording project, we are partnering with some of the stellar musicians in the Twin Cities’ music scene: Dan Chouinard, piano & accordion, Peter Ostroushko, mandolin, Marc Anderson, percussion, Joel Sayles, double bass, and Sara Pajunen, violin.
We are very excited about this upcoming project but because it will be more complicated, time-consuming and expensive than our previous a cappella recording, we are asking your support. Please consider donating any amount, even if it just a few dollars, towards this project. Great music starts from single notes and with your help we can reach our goal of $3000! If you decide to donate $100, you will receive the upcoming CD this spring; for $400, we will come and perform a concert at your home, office or anywhere around the Twin Cities area. Consider giving your friends and family a gift of a concert! Saana Ensemble was just recently accepted to Springboard for the Arts fiscal sponsorship program, so all donations will be tax-deductible. Donations can be made online at http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Saana-Ensemble-Recording-Project,
or you can send a check to Springboard for The Arts, 308 Prince St, St. Paul, MN 55101 and write “SAANA ENSEMBLE” on the memo line. You can always hand your check to any of us Saana members (see previous directions), and we’ll deliver it to Springboard.
Thank you for being our friend and supporter. We hope to see you soon! www.saanaensemble.weebly.com
Happy New Year -Hyvää uutta vuotta,
Saana Ensemble – Elina K, Elina R, Eeva, Sari and Ulla
We have had a great year and the future looks bright! Our year of singing started in January at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. We cannot but be amazed by the magic of singing Finnish hymns in a Catholic church in America. This was our fourth time in Basilica and we were very pleased to be asked back there for the fifth time in November. March was a busy month for us. We were honored to sing at the church service and reception honoring Martti Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, at Christ Church Lutheran as part of Nobel Peace Prize commemoration festivities, an Augsburg College tradition. In January and March we performed with Ameriikan Poijat brass band during its 20th anniversary season. In May, we gave a concert at St. Paul’s-on-the Hill Episcopal Church featuring our frequent partner, the magnificent violinist Sara Pajunen, and in December we returned to New York Mills Cultural Center for the fourth time! We made many new friends participating in Sample Night Live in May. To our surprise (!), we were voted as the Audience Favorite that night and were invited to sing in SNL special event in December.
We want to extend a huge and humble thank you to all of you who enjoy our music and have shown interest in what we do. We wouldn’t be singing without you. Our big news is that we are going to record a new CD in January of 2011! We are all immigrants and our mission is to promote the music we grew up listening to in Finland, as well as promote current and contemporary renditions of Finnish folk music. The feedback of our new material (most of it arranged by our own Elina Kala) has been very positive. For our recording project, we are partnering with some of the stellar musicians in the Twin Cities’ music scene: Dan Chouinard, piano & accordion, Peter Ostroushko, mandolin, Marc Anderson, percussion, Joel Sayles, double bass, and Sara Pajunen, violin.
We are very excited about this upcoming project but because it will be more complicated, time-consuming and expensive than our previous a cappella recording, we are asking your support. Please consider donating any amount, even if it just a few dollars, towards this project. Great music starts from single notes and with your help we can reach our goal of $3000! If you decide to donate $100, you will receive the upcoming CD this spring; for $400, we will come and perform a concert at your home, office or anywhere around the Twin Cities area. Consider giving your friends and family a gift of a concert! Saana Ensemble was just recently accepted to Springboard for the Arts fiscal sponsorship program, so all donations will be tax-deductible. Donations can be made online at http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Saana-Ensemble-Recording-Project,
or you can send a check to Springboard for The Arts, 308 Prince St, St. Paul, MN 55101 and write “SAANA ENSEMBLE” on the memo line. You can always hand your check to any of us Saana members (see previous directions), and we’ll deliver it to Springboard.
Thank you for being our friend and supporter. We hope to see you soon! www.saanaensemble.weebly.com
Happy New Year -Hyvää uutta vuotta,
Saana Ensemble – Elina K, Elina R, Eeva, Sari and Ulla
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