Swedes on the River May 19, 2013 Fiddlers and music lovers everywhere are invited to participate in a class and hear a performance by Swedish master folkfiddlers Örjan Hans-Ers and Görgen Antonsson at 6:00 p.m. at the River Music Experience in Davenport. Each of the musicians has been designated a Riksspelman by the government of King Carl XVI Gustaf, making them musical ambassadors of Sweden. Part of their charter is to educate youth in Sweden and elsewhere about the importance of folk music.
The fiddlers are part of a delegation that includes the governors of three Swedish provinces, who will present a panel discussion on issues related to sustainability earlier in the day, hosted by Augustana College and the City of Rock Island's Advanced Technology and Sustainability Consortium. Freewill donations will be accepted and split between the QCSO's youth programs and the Mauritzson Scholarship, which for more than half a century has brought students from Sweden to the Quad Cities to study at Augustana College.
The class starts at 6:00 p.m. The performance follows at 7:00. The suggested donation is $5 at the door.
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http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=637801 Augustana College
Posted Online: May 10, 2013, 11:07 am
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Press release submitted by Augustana
Rock Island, Ill. – Three northern Swedish provincial governors, two university presidents and cultural representatives including folk fiddlers will make a Quad Cities area visit "in the trek of the immigrants" May 30-31. Two events associated with the tour on May 30, a program on energy and sustainability in Sweden and a musical performance, will be open to the public.
Participants include governors Barbro Holmberg of Gävleborg Province, Sweden´s former Minister of Migration; Britt Bohlin of Jämtland, a recognized national defense expert; and Bo Källstrand of Västernorrland, former head of Swedish Energy.
Also visiting will be university presidents Dr. Maj-Britt Johansson of Gävle Högskola, a forestry land use expert, and Dr. Anders Söderholm of Mittuniversitetet, a specialist in regional planning and development. Cultural representatives include national folkfiddlers (Riksspelmän) Görgen Antonsson and Örjan Hans-Ers, who is also manager of the Gävle Symphony Orchestra. Tourism directors Katarina Ceder Bång of Hälsingland and Mats Forslund of Jämtland also will participate in the tour, to speak about the cultural and natural history of their northern Swedish region, including the newly-named UNESCO World Heritage Hälsingland Farms. They will be accompanied by Jämtland provincial planner and tour organizer Olle Lundgren.
The governors will present a panel discussion, "Sustainability in Energy, Transportation & Tourism: The View from Sweden" as part of a colloquium hosted by Augustana College and the City of Rock Island's Advanced Technology and Sustainability Consortium. The colloquium will take place from 9-10 a.m. May 30 in Augustana's Hanson Hall of Science.
Bohlin's province of Jämtlands has become a leader in renewable energy, including hydroelectric, wind and biofuels. Holmberg took part in a forum last December in China on Eco-City Construction. She is a member of the Earth Charter Initiative.
Also on May 30, musicians Görgen Antonsson and Örjan Hans-Ers will visit the River Music Experience (RME) in Davenport to work with youth from the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and offer a 7 p.m. performance on the RME's Community Stage. In Sweden, the designation Riksspelman indicates a badge of mastery in folk music. Both Antonsson and Hans-Ers have achieved the national designation as folk fiddlers.
Suggested donations of $5 will be used by the American Scandinavian Association to fund the Mauritzson Scholarship, which helps to bring student from Sweden to study at Augustana.
On May 31, the delegation will visit the Jenny Lind Chapel at Andover, Ill., then continue to a public program at nearby Bishop Hill, and Galva, Ill., (sister city of Gävle, Sweden), home of famed Illinois primitive artist Olof Krans. Krans' paintings at the Bishop Hill Museum tell the story of early Swedish migration to western Illinois.
Their study tour will conclude June 1 with a program in north Chicago's Swedish-American Museum in the Andersonville neighborhood.
For more information, please contact Keri Rursch, director of public relations, at (309) 794-7721 or kerirursch@augustana.edu.
Christina Johansson. "Swedish royal visits to Augustana and Illinois." Augustana College 150, 1860-2010. http://www.augustana.edu/x21935.xml. - Christina Johansson is Head of Library and Archival Services, Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center
Because of their deep connections to Sweden and Swedish immigrants, Augustana College and the Quad Cities have enjoyed numerous visits by members of the Swedish royal family during the last 100 years.
Visits by royal family members include Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf's brief visit to the campus in 1927; Prince Bertil in 1948; King Carl Gustav XVI in April of 1976 followed by his sister Princess Desiree and her husband Count Niclas Silvershiold in May of 1976; a 1988 visit by Queen Silvia; and King Carl Gustav XVI and Queen Silvia in 1996.
"History of First Lutheran." First Lutheran Church of Moline. http://firstlutheranmoline.org/history.html.
[church architecture reflects cultural changes]
On November 3, 1875 there was a unanimous vote to build a new brick church which would become the current building. A month later the building committee outlined the design: "The architecture will, on a whole, be simple and tasteful with good proportions without unnecessary cost and gaudiness yet not lacking the necessary adornment for proper style and strength so that it gives a definite impression of being a church and have a worshipful atmosphere." The cost of construction and furnishing was not to exceed $25,000 and, in fact, cost only slightly more.
The church was to some degree patterned after the Swedish Immanuel Lutheran Church in Chicago, rebuilt after the Great Chicago Fire. Uncharacteristic of a Swedish church, the ground floor provided accommodations for the parish school and pastor's office. The second floor housed the sanctuary, which was five-aisled with pews occupying nearly every square inch. The need for seating was so great that a complete u-shaped balcony was added. These seating arrangements were also not characteristic of Swedish churches nor was the gothic style of the windows. But very Swedish was the barrel ceiling in the nave and chancel and the semicircular shape of the frescoes, the doorways, and even the hymn boards. The altar painting, an Ascension scene, was also very ethnic. The rest of the chancel was not, consisting of a small communion table below a large dominating pulpit. This represented the contemporary style in American Protestant churches; being designed as great preaching halls for pulpit princes.
In 1918 the chancel was redesigned to include a massive high altar to reflect the increasing sacramental and liturgical development in the Augustana Synod. Still an over-sized pulpit was retained, but to the side of the altar. Years later another contemporary design was effected with the building of a communion table placed in front of the altar so the pastor could face the congregation when celebrating the Eucharist. Since then, the church has housed a liturgically accented congregation. Also in that year the name was changed to First Lutheran Church.
HISTORY First Covenant Church of Moline (written in 2003 by Rev. James R. Lundell, Pastor Emeritus) http://www.firstcovenantmoline.org/history.htm
In February of 1876, a number of Swedish immigrants gathered together to discuss if there was a need to build a Swedish Lutheran church in the west end of Moline. The question was answered in the affirmative.
There were two basic factors that drew these people together. One was a powerful revival movement of the Holy Spirit that spread over Sweden for many years. Lives were changed and the presence of God was evidenced with power and sincere conversion. The other factor was the immigration of many Swedish young people to America. The church backgrounds of these immigrants were varied and this group wanted to organize a "pure Swedish Evangelical Lutheran church free from any synod or outward control". The name chosen for this new fellowship was "The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Gustav Adolphus Church of Moline, Illinois". Soon a building was erected on the corner of 4th Avenue and 3rd Street and dedicated on July 9, 1876. Fourteen years later, the congregation voted to request membership in the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant Church
- Moline Swedish
Friendship
Association https://sites.google.com/site/molineswedishfriendship/
- Swedish-American Research Material Preserved by Lennart Setterdahl https://sites.google.com/site/lennartsetterdahl/home
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