Two Northern Times. Aud the Deep Minded and HAV Duo
15 April 2026, 19:00 - Ģertrūde Street Theatre
(101a Ģertrūdes iela, Riga)
Psychological drama Aud the Deep-Minded and HΛV Duo
We Live in Different Times resonates particularly strongly in the Baltic context. We are simultaneously oriented toward Europe’s cultural centres and shaped by experiences of the periphery; we live between memory and an accelerated present, between local language spaces and international circulation. This evening at Ģertrūdes ielas teātris is consciously designed as a two-part event with an intermission—two distinct modes of listening within a single night.
The programme also situates the Baltic Music Days within a broader Northern context. This year’s festival unfolds in close collaboration with Nordic composers’ organisations, which means that alongside Baltic music, works from the Nordic countries are also heard, performed by musicians from the North. This concert marks the point at which that Nordic presence reaches its greatest intensity.
In the first part of the evening, Aud the Deep-Minded is presented as a one-act psychological drama. Drawing on fragments from 9th-century Scottish Viking sagas, the work transforms ancient material into a contemporary reflection on power, faith, and choice. The journey of the Viking woman Aud—from loss and an impulse toward revenge to the realisation of her own role as an oppressor, and finally to the decision to free those she has enslaved—resonates strongly with Baltic experience. Here, history is not abstract; it is a question of responsibility and action in the present. The work’s multilingual structure (layers of English, Latin, Norwegian, and Gaelic) and live electronic elements portray identity as movement—something constantly translated and rearticulated, much like Baltic culture itself, which often exists simultaneously across multiple languages and memories.
In a different temporal register and on a different scale, the second part of the evening features HΛV Duo: Finnish–Sámi flautist Marianne Sihvonen and Faroese guitarist Alvi Joensen. They bring a Nordic perspective to the festival not only through repertoire, but through their presence on stage—newly created music, close collaboration with composers, and sound worlds that reflect on the long-term relationship between humans and their environment.
On this evening, Baltic and Nordic “other times” meet within a single space. The intermission becomes a threshold, allowing listeners to experience this transition clearly and consciously.