The Sutter Brothers

This 50-minute program of music and stories, poetry and song explores the experience of Scandinavian immigrants, their ancestors, and their descendants. "Sons and Daughters of the Northern Lights" offers glimpses of early settlers, memories of a vanished village school, a lament for ghost towns, and celebrations of colorful farm folk and fishermen. The show is specially designed to evoke memories and provoke curiosity about regional history, ethnic culture, and the presence of the past in our contemporary lives.

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

Arrowhead Library Tour Performance

The Sutter Brothers - music and stories, poetry and songs.

The Sutter Brothers with accordionist Art Bjorngjeld, celebrating the publication of Bart's new collection, 

Nordic Accordion: Poems in a Scandinavian Mood

Jim Johnson and Bart Sutter will read from their new poetry collections at Moon Palace Books, 3032 Minnehaha Ave., in Minneapolis, on Thursday, Sept. 6, from 7 to 8 p.m. Noted Nordic accordion player Art Bjorngjeld will provide complementary music.

Jim Johnson, who has served two terms as the Poet Laureate of Duluth and has twice won the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award, is the author of such books as Finns in Minnesota Midwinter, Wolves, Yoik, and his most recent, Text for a Nomadic Future (Red Dragonfly Press). Currently, Jim divides his time between Cedar Falls, Iowa, and his cabin south of Ely.

Bart Sutter is the only author to win the Minnesota Book Award in three categories: poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. A resident of Duluth, Bart has written for public radio, he has had four verse plays produced, and he often performs as one-half of The Sutter Brothers, a poetry-and-music duo. His new collection is Nordic Accordion: Poems in a Scandinavian Mood (Nodin Press).

Art Bjorngjeld is a multi-instrumentalist who will try to confine himself to accordion for this event. Well-known on the Nordic music scene, Art has performed at Nisswastämman, Norsk Hostfest, and the Kodiak Scandinavian Culture & Film Festival, among dozens of other venues.

Book launch concert celebrating the publication of Bart's new book: Nordic Accordion: Poems in a Scandinavian Mood

Quaker Meeting House
102 East First Street, Duluth
$10 Admission /​ $5 Students
Refreshments

Explore the experience of Scandinavian immigrants and their descendants with a fun-filled blend of music and storytelling with The Sutter Brothers.

The Sutter Brothers are looking forward to performing at this Swedish festival in October.  The festival features art and crafts, special foods, ethnic music, and other special entertainment while Swedish folk dancers and musicians add to the flavor of the festival.

A musical play about Swedish summer farms, written by Bart Sutter, with a front set by Vikarbyns lilla spelmanslag, a young adult fiddle group from Sweden

Cow Calls in Dalarna is a one-hour readers’ theater piece, which employs a cycle of original poems by Duluth playwright and poet Bart Sutter with traditional music to evoke the lost world of Sweden’s summer pasture camps.  The play is musically charged with folk songs, fiddle tunes, cow calls, cow horns, and cowbells.

 The performances of Cow Calls in Dalarna will be preceded by a program of complementary music presented by Vikarbyns Lilla Spelmanslag, a young adult fiddle group from the Lake Siljan area of Sweden. Vikarbyns perform in folk dress, under the guidance of their teacher, Margaretha Mattsson.   

 Click here to purchase tickets for July 22 performance.

Click here to purchase tickets for July 23 performance.

The Sutter Brothers will perform during the Duluth Midsommar Celebration, which runs 10 a.m. - 5 p.m at Peace Lutheran Church in Duluth.
Sponsored by Swedish Cultural Society of Duluth

World Premiere of Cow Calls in Dalarna: A Readers' Theatre Play in Verse with Folk Music

Sponsored by Swedish Cultural Society of Duluth
Show Only Tickets still available

Book signing at Subtext Books - good chance to visit their new location, if you haven't already seen it.

2:15 pm

• Bart Sutter: Haiku: Tiny Poems with Large Implications for Writers
• Ross Sutter: How Song and Ballad Lyrics Make Musical Memories 

7:00 pm - 25th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

• Don Shelby portraying Mark Twain: “On Writers and Writing”
• The Sutter Brothers: “Poetry and Music, Songs and Stories”

Children and Family Performance

The Sutter Brothers will present a show that conjures north country characters in songs and stories, poetry and music. The program will have a Scandinavian flavor accented by pianist Sam Black and Norwegian singer Stina Fagertun.

 The performance will also serve as a book launch for Chester Creek Ravine, Bart Sutter's collection of haiku, recently released by Nodin Press. All 150 haiku contained in this book - tiny poems with large implications - were inspired by Sutter's walks alongside Chester Creek, which drops dramatically through Duluth on its final run to Lake Superior. The cover and illustrations for Chester Creek Ravine were furnished by Duluth printmaker Cecilia Lieder.

Beverages provided - brown bag lunches welcome.

Program hosted by Headwaters School of Music & the Arts

Sanford Room in lower level of Library.