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EESTI ELU reedel, 5. veebruaril 2021 — Friday, February 5, 2021
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Tuulikki Bartosik and Tiina Kiik evoke “Memories of Home” for Estonian Music Week’s new Online Concert Series Vincent Teetsov For Estonians of the diaspora, the concept of “home”, what that word means and where it is assigned, can be a compli cated thing to express to oth ers or come to terms with individually. You may be Canadian or American, but your culture, family tradi tions, and even passports are enough to distinguish your sense of home from others. Music, however, has the power to define a home and restore us to that precious place. At 8:00 PM on Thursday February 25th, Estonian Music Week is bringing us the first performance of its new online concert series, called “Memo ries of Home,” in which musi cians express what home means to them. You can watch the concert on the VEMU YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/ user/VEMUESC) or on Esto nian Music Week’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook. com/EstonianMusicWeek). The first performance, on the evening of the 25th, will feature accordionists Tuulikki Bartosik and Tiina Kiik, and Canadian dancer and choreographer Julia Aplin. The night will form a digital bridge between Estonia and Toronto. For Bartosik and Kiik, who both play the free bass accor dion, playing music brings about the feeling of home. Bartosik says, “I’m always home in music. It doesn’t matter if I’m touring or if I’m moving.” That safe place, whether performing or record ing, brings Bartosik back to age one to three, when she spent most of her time in southern Estonia with her Võro lan guage-speaking grandmother, who sang a lot. Readers were able to enjoy a
glimpse into that place in Bartosik’s live stream from the forests of Võrumaa last year. It’s a place that stirs up ideas musically through its distinct culture and hilly topography. She says, “My soul isn’t long ing for something else when I’m there.” Tiina Kiik also has very early associations between music and home. “I always think of home when I play to this day, as I had my first accordion lesson two days after my brother was born. So I remember his birth, my ema and isa, my tädi and onu, and all of our friends!” Of her program in the next EMW show, Kiik says “Each piece in my program is from a different time in my accordion journey.” Speaking to both Bartosik and Kiik, it’s clear that music is something that connects their present day with the past, as it follows them through the moments of their lives. Bartosik remembered one particularly poignant instance of this. “I had this really strange vision in London in September 2019 when I was touring with Timo Alakotila, a Finnish pianist. We had a concert at Heath Street Baptist Church... I suddenly felt that both of my grandmothers were sitting and watching me. I don’t know why, or where that came from, but I felt that they were really satisfied because they both really loved music, especially the one from Võrumaa, who had sung in the church choir. There’s a lot of music in her side of rela tives. They’re kind of like guardian angels.” Beyond physical places, artists need to feel at home with those they perform with. Part of any great show is chemistry and
Mary Fragedakis to seek Ontario Liberal Party nomination in Toronto-Danforth TORONTO, Jan. 6, 2021 – Former City Councillor Mary Fragedakis will seek the Ontario Liberal Party nomi nation in Toronto-Danforth, vowing to fight for small busi ness and strong local commu nities.
government.” Mary is currently the Executive Director of Greek Town on the Danforth BIA and served as City Councillor for the riding of Toronto-Danforth (Ward 29) from 2010 until 2018, when the Ford govern ment redrew Toronto’s electoral “Our province needs ex map. perienced leaders who under As a City Councillor, she stand how to get things done,” worked with her colleagues said Fragedakis. “The Covid-19 across the political spectrum, pandemic has shown us just building consensus around real how important it is to be repre solutions that helped improve sented by people who un people’s lives. derstand the importance of local A vocal champion of public businesses and local concerns – transit, she served on the Board and I plan to be a voice for my of the TTC, where she helped community and those whose usher in the 2-hour TTC lives have been most impacted Transfer Policy, increase the by the decisions of the Ford
respect, and between all of these artists there is an abun dance of that. Speaking excitedly about Tiina Kiik, with whom she will be performing a pre- recorded, improvisational duet, Tuulikki Bartosik said “Tiina is a legend. There aren’t so many females playing free bass accor dion, so I think Tiina has a very important place in accordion history, but also music history.” Instruments may also tie us to places we call home. In Bartosik’s mind, instruments are living creatures, with dif ferent characteristics, moods, and the ability to remind her of different pivotal moments of her life. When Bartosik started to learn the accordion at eight years old, and then discovered the free bass accordion, she was magnetized to the instrument. It all happened around the time when Estonia had regained its independence, when it was difficult to get hold of an accor dion of this type. Her latest accordion, the sig nature of her musical sound and the biggest one of all, is a Pigini from Italy, a brand that has been making these instru ments since 1946. “I took it to Italy two summers ago when it was over 40 degrees Celsius in Milan. I was just horrified to play a solo concert outside. It was a covered venue but still very warm. For me, it was too hot. But the accordion loved it! It sounded like it had never sounded before. I thought ‘It’s the homeland of the accordion, of course it will sound per fect!’” Even instruments have their homes. The accordion is a universally celebrated instrument across cultures from Europe to Latin America. As Tiina Kiik ex plained, the instrument has al lowed her to explore “classical work transcriptions, contem porary music, improvised mu
TTC budget to ease overcrowd ing and was a strong supporter of the Downtown Relief Line. She believes fiercely that government must invest in opportunity, cultural vibrancy, education and long term care, and has served on the boards of the Toronto Public Library, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Zoo, Harbourfront Centre and the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, and is a cur rent Board member of the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA). “The success of main street small business is fundamentally tied to the well-being and suc cess of the community as a whole,” said Fragedakis. “As a member of a Liberal govern ment, I will ensure that we re build Ontario from the strength of our local neighbourhoods.”
Poster by Laani Heinar, created with images from Tuulikki Bartosik and Tiina Kiik’s family archives.
sic, tangos, folk...and so on.” Incidentally, regarding one of the pieces Kiik will play, com poser Daniel Foley has said “Rändaja laulud is a 20 minute, seven movement major work... about Tiina’s trip through the stylistic world.” Kiik will be playing and singing the first movement. On this stylistic trip, Kiik met Julia Aplin, an expert of dance and movement who has a multidimensional way of com municating different concepts through her art form. Audiences can expect vigorous dancing and unrestricted expression across the board. The upcoming EMW show won’t be the first time that Bartosik has played alongside a Canadian. After meeting in Estonia in 2016 and deepening a transnational musical collabo ration over two years, Bartosik and Canadian electroacoustic composer, Vanessa Massera, ended up performing together in Moscow in the Ostankino
Mary holds an MA in Political Science from the University of Toronto and com pleted the Directors Education Program at the Rotman School of Management. A lifelong progressive, Fragedakis understands that Toronto residents want real solutions, and leaders who have achieved real impact in people’s lives. “The challenges we face are too serious for us to continue to vote for people who don’t know how to fight and win on behalf of their residents,” said Fra gedakis. “This riding is ready for change and it needs an MPP who can deliver housing, educa tion and transit solutions that will strengthen our neighbour hoods and our province, while taking care of our most vul nerable friends and neighbours.”
Television Tower. This goes to show how far well-paired creative minds, no matter the circumstances, can connect and make something great. Kiik and Aplin’s perfor mance will be filmed in Toronto, while Bartosik’s will be filmed at St. Catherine’s Monastery, founded in Tallinn by Dominican friars as early as the 13th century. What initially drew Bartosik to this place in particular was an installation that was inside, called the “Invisible Christmas Tree.” Her hope is to try to connect to this place as a point of inspiration while playing. More than any thing, she is excited to reach an audience all over the world, no matter where we call home. Tune in at the end of this month to watch these artists perform with sensitivity and connection. It’ll enrich us with all of the warm feelings and dreams that a home can give us – in Estonia or abroad.
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