Free Kantele Christmas Concert

A’chording to Kantele.  Back row, left to right:  Lorraine Piirainen (West Paris), Lin Gordon (Freeport), Chris Frazier (Lisbon Falls), Deborah Crump (West Paris), Barbara Honkala (Bethel), Sally Riman (Harrison).  Front row:  Janet Gardner (Otisfield), Martha Wilson (Lovell), Kathy Cummings (South Paris), Irene Rochwarg (Yarmouth)

A’chording to Kantele to perform a free Christmas concert on Sat., Dec. 10 at St. Matthew’s, Lisbon

November 30, 2011.  Step out of your Christmas music box this holiday season and bring the family to hear the hauntingly beautiful sound of the Finnish Lap harp.  The ten-member A’chording to Kantele will perform a Christmas concert on Saturday, December 10 at 6 pm at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church on the Hill off Route 196 in Lisbon. 

This free concert includes complementary coffee and desserts.

“St. Matthew’s is offering Mid-Coast Maine an opportunity to celebrate Christ’s birth with Finnish and traditional carols,” said the Rev. W. Beau Wagner, Rector.

The kantele is a traditional Finnish lap-harp with a 2000-year history rooted in the folklore of the “Kalevala,” the national epic of Finland.  Finns consider it an important symbol of their culture and it is played in their schools, universities and concert halls.

The audience will hear six different types of kanteles:  10, 11, 15 stringed ones along with 11 +4 strings, 15 + 4 strings, and 38 string concert kanteles. 

To Chris Frazier, Lisbon Falls resident, 5^th grade teacher and one of the founding members of the group, the kantele’s sound is “just a wonder.” She first heard its sound 11 years ago when a fellow teacher played at a staff meeting and then offered to teach the instrument to anyone who wanted to learn.

“The sound was unlike anything I'd ever heard. It seemed to move right into me.  I was totally captivated,” said Chris who instantly signed up for lessons.

When Chris first played her large 36-string kantele the day it arrived from Finland, her fingers hurt “so-o-o badly. But I was determined to get the beautiful sounds out of that instrument that I knew were in there,” she said.  “I simply could not get past that kantele on the dining room table without stopping to try it again. It was as though something in me needed to reach in and coax it out. Now I play a concert kantele and can feel its enchantment as strongly as the first day I heard its sound.”

The group began in November 2000 when a group of 30 people met in the basement of a local Lutheran Church to learn how to play Ode to Joy on the kantele.  The kantele players became a performing group known as The Maine Kanteles.  A'chording to Kantele is part of The Maine Kanteles.

Their sacred music includes such familiar tunes as Amazing Grace and Simple Gifts.  However, they also perform Finnish pieces such as Konevitsankirkonkellot which means churchbells of the Konevitsa monastery (an Eastern Orthodox church).

St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, founded in 1906, brings together contemporary worship with ancient ritual, Bible-based preaching, expressions of the Holy Spirit, and loving service to others.