Time to Rise. Qullaq
14 April 2026, 19:00 - Ģertrūde Street Theatre (101a Ģertrūdes iela, Riga)
Participants:
QULLAQ: Aidan O’Rourke (Scotland) -
violin
Nive Nilsen (Greenland) - voice
Hans-Henrik Suersaq Poulsen
(Greenland) - voice/percussion
Mikè Fencer Thomsen
(Greenland) - voice/guitar
A string ensemble featuring Estonian and Latvian musicians.
Qullaq—a Greenlandic word meaning “to climb upward” or “to rise”—resonates in this festival as a precise response to the motto We Live in Different Times. Different communities and histories coexist in parallel, often without truly encountering one another or even knowing much about each other’s realities. In Greenlandic culture, shaped by the rhythms of polar night and the midnight sun, light is not merely a metaphor—it is an orienting force and a means of survival. Qullaq therefore becomes a sign of hope, awakening, and resistance.
This version of Qullaq is distinctive in both its ensemble and its collaborative model. Greenlandic musicians meet Scottish composer and violinist Aidan O’Rourke, alongside musicians from the Ensemble for New Music Tallinn and the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. This is not a decorative fusion of genres or cultures, but the creation of a shared stage language in which oral tradition, contemporary composition, and a living practice of listening form a single, breathing space.
Here, We Live in Different Times also means that cultures exist within different temporal layers. In one context, tradition functions as a living, everyday language; in another, it is treated as historical heritage—easily romanticised or appropriated. Qullaq takes a clear position: tradition is not static. It is alive, evolving, and deserving of protection—not as an exotic artefact, but as the foundation of people’s identity and voice. The programme resonates with ongoing cultural reclamation movements in Greenland, where a new generation of artists is increasingly reclaiming language, spiritual knowledge, and musical roots, while also speaking out against policies that seek to appropriate what does not belong to them.
The presence of Aidan O’Rourke expands this message into the musical domain. His string writing and violin playing connect the energy of Scottish tradition with contemporary sonic thinking, building bridges between times and places. These bridges testify to the fact that living traditions grow precisely through encounter—through exchange, learning, and deep listening.