Time to Rise. Qullaq
14 April 2026, 19:00 - Ģertrūde Street Theatre (101a Ģertrūdes iela, Riga)
Creative team — composers, lyricists, and stage performers:
Aidan O'Rourke, composer and fiddler (Scotland)
Nive Nielsen, singer and actress (Greenland)
Hans-Henrik Suersaq Poulsen, singer, drummer, and actor (Greenland)
Miké Fencer Thomsen, singer, guitarist, and actor (Greenland)
Dramaturgy, direction, and scenography:
Valerio Peroni (Italy / Denmark)
Alice Occhiali (Italy / Denmark)
Ensemble for New Music Tallinn (Estonia):
Toomas Hendrik Ellervee, violin
Talvi Nurgamaa, viola
Paul-Gunnar Loorand, cello
Teemu Mastovaara, cello
Madis Jürgens, double bass
Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music student string quartet (Latvia):
Emīlija Bukša, violin
Patriks Poikāns, violin
Līvija Bukša, viola
Zenta Evita Timermane, cello
Qullaq means "to climb upward," "to rise" in Greenlandic. At this festival it rings as a precise commentary on the motto "We Live in Different Times." Different communities and histories coexist in parallel, often without meeting and even knowing little about one another. In Greenlandic culture, shaped by the rhythm of the polar night and the midnight sun, light is not merely a metaphor — it is a point of orientation and a means of survival. Thus Qullaq becomes a sign of hope, a sensation of awakening, and an act of resistance.
Qullaq is a unique collaborative project between artists rooted in Greenland, Denmark, Scotland, Estonia, and Latvia. In this theatricalised concert performance, the ancient Greenlandic drum-dance tradition meets the folk and contemporary layers of Scottish music, alongside the innovative approach to the performing arts of an Italian-Danish theatre company. An international creative team has woven these strikingly different worlds into a single whole: Scottish fiddle master and composer Aidan O'Rourke; three Inuit musicians and actors — Nive Nielsen, Hans-Henrik Suersaq Poulsen, and Miké Fencer Thomsen, who in this production also appear as authors of texts and melodies in fragmentary fashion; and the creative tandem of the Holstebro-based (Denmark) Váli Theatre Lab — dramatists, actors, and theatre pedagogues of Italian origin, Valerio Peroni and Alice Occhiali.
Following performances in Glasgow, Copenhagen, and Nuuk, Qullaq is revealed in a new guise in Riga, this staging being special for its lineup of performers and its expanded collaborative model. Within the framework of the Baltic Music Days, the Greenlandic musicians meet Scottish composer and fiddler Aidan O'Rourke, the string players of the Ensemble for New Music Tallinn (whom we also encountered at a concert in Liepāja a few days ago), and a student string quartet from the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, assembled especially for this occasion. This is not a merging of genres and cultures in a decorative sense, but rather a shared stage language in which oral tradition, contemporary composition, a powerful visual language that stirs all the senses, and a living practice of listening form a single breathing space.
"We Live in Different Times" here also means that different cultures inhabit different temporal layers: in one place, tradition is experienced as a living everyday language; in another, as a historical heritage easily romanticised or appropriated. Qullaq takes a clear position: tradition is not static. It is living, changeable, and in need of protection — not as an exotic form, but as the foundation of a people's identity and voice. This programme resonates with the cultural reclamation movement underway in Greenland, where a new generation of artists is reclaiming language, spiritual experience, and musical roots with ever-greater conviction, while loudly objecting to policies that attempt to claim what does not belong to them. Aidan O'Rourke's presence expands this message in the musical dimension. His string writing and fiddle playing unite the energy of the Scottish tradition with the thinking of a contemporary sound space, building bridges between times and places. These bridges are proof that a living tradition grows precisely through contact with others — through the exchange of ideas, learning, and listening.
With roots in Irish and Scottish folk music, fiddler and composer Aidan O'Rourke (1975) has always striven to be free from any traditional frameworks or constraints. This is vividly attested by his involvement in such projects as the progressive and politically charged folk music trio Lau, launched in 2006, which has released several highly acclaimed albums, as well as in the groups The Caledonia Ramblers, Blazin' Fiddles, Atlantic Arc, and several other ensembles. O'Rourke also has several solo albums to his credit, the most distinctive of which are connected to the multi-instalment project 365, in the course of which the musician created a new composition every day for an entire year. Aidan has also composed the music for the first feature-length documentary film in Gaelic, Iorram, which premiered to great acclaim at the 2021 Glasgow Film Festival. That same year, the composer received the Paul Hamlyn Award. Aidan O'Rourke is also a faculty member at Ulster University, with additional experience in curating several festivals and concert venues.
Text by Santa Bušs, translation by Krists Auznieks