Russenorsk celebration of music cooperation

Young Norwegian and Russian musicians recently took part in the festival “Russenorsk” in Arkhangelsk.The name of the festival dates back to the period of famous “Pomor trade” - the century of intensive barter trade between the Russian inhabitants of the White Sea coast and their neighbors in the Northern Norway. Russenorsk was a name of the pidgin language composed of distorted Norwegian and Russian words that helped them to communicate in commercial operations. “Russenorsk” is of course no longer used but it still reminds us about long historic relations between the northerners.

The two music school #1 in Arkhangelsk and Tromso School of Culture were among the first actors who established contacts in the early years of the Barents cooperation. For over two decades they have realized a lot of joint projects where the students and the teachers of two schools have got fantastic possibilities for creativity and competence exchange. Annual summer schools, master classes, joint concerts, festivals and tours made a great impulse for the development of young musicians. Due to intensive cooperation with the partners in Norway, Sweden and Finland the Arkhangelsk school even got the second name the Music School of the Barents Region.

From 9th to 11th of December the students and teachers from Tromso and Arkhangelsk came together for a festival devoted to 20-years anniversary of their cooperation. Three days of the festival were full of active creative work, rehearsals, concerts and social events. Both Russian and Norwegian students presented concerts available for all citizens of Arkhangelsk. The program of the festival RusseNorsk ended with grand gala concerts held in the central hall of Pomor Philharmonic.