It’s a February evening in Kotka, near the Russian border. The Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra and the two Sámi artists have just boarded the tour bus, visibly delighted by what happened in the concert hall a short while ago.
Within a few minutes, several of the musicians are asleep—a skill they’ve developed during their many tours in recent years, to Bodø and Savonlinna, among other places.
Katarina Barruk is sitting in the front of the bus, looking out at the road. Far from here, in California, the artist Bad Bunny, who is the same age, recently performed a much-talked-about intermission number in Spanish during the Super Bowl. “No one understood what he was saying,” claimed the sitting president.
– In a way, it’s more challenging to sing in a language that not everyone speaks. Everything else around it has to help convey the message. But it’s also an advantage, because singing in your own language adds a special dimension to the music—especially when it’s an indigenous language that has survived against all odds.
The tour took Katarina Barruk, Hildá Länsman, and the Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra all over Finland. Photo: Andreas Nilsson
“It may sound grandiose, but I want to convey a sense of freedom.”
A few hours earlier. The whitewashed concert hall from the 1940s fills with small talk and footsteps. The nervousness over the mere handful of advance tickets sold dissipates as the people of Kotka stream in. Already in the opening number, Takashi Yoshimatsu’s *And The Birds Are Still…*, we see a flock of birds taking flight toward the vaulted ceiling.
Katarina Barruk and Hildá Länsman are in their element. With their own songs, arranged for orchestra, and their joint joik numbers, they take us on journeys across great distances. In the finale, where they improvise freely over the final note of Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony, they look happy. They’re having fun.
“We’re quite different,” Katarina says of Hildá afterward. “We have different energies, but also a deep understanding and a shared perspective on those different energies. I can sense what Hildá has left behind, and vice versa. In the final number, when we’re yoiking, it feels like we’ve just started the concert. Now we could keep going like this for two hours.”
It was Katarina Barruk who suggested a collaboration with Hildá Länsman when orchestra director Anna Sjödin began developing a new concert concept.
Two Sámi artists with a flair for immersive pop music and vocal experimentation. An innovative conductor, Bjarni Frímann. And a symphony orchestra that moves effortlessly between genres.
In 2027–2028, Katarina Barruk will be artist-in-residence at the Norrlandsoperan. Photo: Andreas Nilsson
After a few concerts on the Swedish side, the collaboration continued on a tour of Finland—as part of the Arctic Pulse project.
Both soloists move around a lot on stage. Katarina says that dance is a natural part of her artistic expression.
– I do it because I want to. It may sound grandiose, but I want to convey a sense of freedom. That’s what everyone dreams of. There are many people and individuals who aren’t free, trapped by their circumstances. That’s why it’s important in my art to do exactly what I want with the body and voice I have.
Freedom can never be taken for granted, says Katarina. And that’s why cultural projects like this one feel so meaningful.
Hildá Länsman, Katarina Barruk, conductor Bjarni Frímann, and the Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra thank the audience. PHOTO: Andreas Nilsson
While on tour, she has heard the news about the Youth Barometer, which shows that attitudes toward the indigenous Sámi people and other minorities are becoming more hostile.
It turns out that some young people don’t want to have Sámi people as neighbors. That’s exactly why what we’re doing now is so important. This is our role in society.
She looks back on the first day of rehearsals, when she told the musicians how much working with them means to her, that their playing influences her artistically, and, not least, that it conveys an important message to the audience.
– I hope they understand that I really mean it.
More adventures lie ahead with the Norrlandsoperan, which has named her artist-in-residence for 2027. “It feels really exciting and special,” she says, “to spread my wings even further and in new ways together with a cultural institution in the Ume Sami region.”
After the concerts in Helsinki, Kotka, and Turku, the group heads back home. The bus returns to a city where new road signs have begun to be posted with the city’s name in two languages. Welcome home to:
Umeå
Ubmeje
Text: Hanna Kangassalo
Photo: Andreas Nilsson
