Qullaq
Qullaq is a new concert performance created through the meeting of artists and musical and theatrical cultures from Greenland, Scotland, Italy, and Denmark.
The four musicians and performers — Nive Nielsen, Hans-Henrik Suersaq Poulsen, Miké Fencer Thomsen, and Aidan O’Rourke — have developed the music together, each contributing from their own artistic and musical expression.
The performance is directed by Valerio Peroni and Alice Occhiali, who together form Váli Theatre Lab.
Qullaq — meaning “ascending” — contains elements of beginning and ending, but also returning, as part of a cyclical movement. It symbolizes light in darkness, reflecting the rhythm between the dark polar winter night and the summer’s midnight sun. Thus, Qullaq also represents direction, awakening, hope, and resistance — like a light growing out of the shadows and revealing new paths.
The performance blends cultures, oral traditions, and modern forms of expression, placing tradition in dialogue with the present, both musically and scenically. But Qullaq is also a political act — a poetic form of resistance against cultural homogenization — offering an alternative narrative to those that often marginalize the voices, culture, and traditions of Indigenous peoples.
The project was initiated by the Nordic Music Days festival.
The first part of Qullaq premiered in Glasgow at the opening of Nordic Music Days 2024 in Scotland, in collaboration with the Scottish Ensemble.
For Suialaa Arts Festival 2025, Qullaq has been developed further into a full-length performance, premiering together with the Nuuk String Ensemble.
The presentation of Qullaq in Nuuk is a collaboration between Suialaa Arts Festival and Nordic Music Days.
Participants
Performers / Musicians / Singers / Composers:
Aidan O’Rourke (Scotland)
Hans-Henrik Suersaq Poulsen (Kalaallit Nunaat / Greenland)
Miké Fencer Thomsen (Kalaallit Nunaat / Greenland)
Nive Nielsen (Kalaallit Nunaat / Greenland)
Madis Jürgens (Estonia)
Sofia Carolina Hernandez Mejia (Venezuela / Kalaallit Nunaat)
Teemu Mastovaara (Finland)
Hanne Saandvig Immanuelsen (Kalaallit Nunaat)
Nuuk String Ensemble (Kalaallit Nunaat / Greenland)
Dramaturgy, direction, and choreography:
Valerio Peroni (Italy / Denmark)
Alice Occhiali (Italy / Denmark)
With support from
Suialaa Arts Festival
Nordic Music Days
Danish Composers’ Association
NAPA – Nordic Institute in Greenland
Nordic Culture Point
Creative Scotland
Ensemble New Music Tallinn
