Program: Kalevala Day Celebration
Subject
Kasha Breau
Date2020 February 23
MediumPaper
ClassificationsInformation Artifacts
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.16
DescriptionProgram for Kalevala Day Celebration, February 23, 2020.
The event relates to Year 21 of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, featuring Finnish kantele playing by teaching artist Kasha Breau. Kasha played music related to the Finnish oral poetry epic the Kalevala, celebrated on February 28 in Finland. Her instrument, the kantele, is a stringed zither played by folk musicians to accompany the reciting of the Kalevala.
NotesSubject Note: The Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a CCHAP initiative since 1997 that fosters the sharing of community-based traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a skilled mentor artist to a student/apprentice. The program pairs master artists from RI, MA, or CT with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way to knit together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities and events when master/apprentice artists perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning to public audiences. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht who has a deep knowledge of the folk arts landscape of Rhode Island. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support also from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Institute for Community Research, and the Connecticut Historical Society.The event relates to Year 21 of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, featuring Finnish kantele playing by teaching artist Kasha Breau. Kasha played music related to the Finnish oral poetry epic the Kalevala, celebrated on February 28 in Finland. Her instrument, the kantele, is a stringed zither played by folk musicians to accompany the reciting of the Kalevala.
Biographical Note: Kasha Breau is a traditional harpist and singer playing original music and folk songs from around the world on modern reconstructions of medieval and renaissance harps as well as the modern concert harp. She is a graduate of the Hartt School of Music and has taught harp, voice, kantele, piano, and organ. She has a special interest in the kantele, the national instrument of Finland, and is one of the few active performers and tachers of this instrument. She received Year 21 (2018-2019) Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program support to teach and promote the kantele with two apprentices from the Finnish community, and often performs at the community's Kalevala Day celebrations. Kasha serves as organist and music director at the First Congregational Church in Portland, CT. She was an environmental educator for obver 35 years and is a licensed rehabilitator for injured and orpahned songbirds, raptors, and bats. (source: artist brochure)
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
Graciela Quiñones-Rodriguez
2004 February 21
