Storytellers + musicians

friday 2/8 • 19.30 | Gamla Bion
storytelling performance The Sacred Masculine
with Jeroen de Jong, Gunilla Cullemark, Jan Roelofs and Frans Koenigs
Song Christina Falk, Piano Anna Brodin

S T O R Y T E L L E R S

Jeroen de Jong [The Netherlands]

Gunilla Cullemark [Sweden]

Jan Roelofs [The Netherlands]

Writing has been Jan’s main activity all his life (as journalist, copywriter, author) but the spoken word has gripped his attention since he came in contact with storytelling. The Örsundsbro storytelling festival of 2016 was for him a relevation and he is more than happy to join again this year.
With a spiritual background in The Pathwork, Jan continually tries to remember himself and others that all Paths eventually lead to Reunion. He looks forward to bring this truth on stage, on the Saturday evening of august 5th, in the old cinema of Örsundsbro.

Frans Koenigs [The Netherlands/Sweden]

M U S I C I A N S

Christina Falk [ Sweden]

Christina Falk trained as an Opera singer and pianist at The Nordic Music Conservatory in Stockholm, The Royal College of Music and Drama in Gothenburg and at L’Accademia Chigiana in Siena.
She is a versatile performer with a repertoire ranging from operas, chamber music to renaissance and contemporary music.

Christina has appeared in the following roles but to name a few, Turandot (Swedish Folksopera, Panstwowa Opera Gdansk, Israel Music Festival), Carmen (Riksteatern), the Countess in the Marriage of Figaro, Titania in a Midsummer Night’s Dream (Norrlandsoperan), Helena (Paris, Drottningholm Palace Theatre).
As a concert performer, she has worked with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Nordic Chamber Orchestra and has collaborated with conductors and musicians such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Arnold Östman, Jacob Lindberg and Roland Pöntinen.

Christina co-founded the chamber music ensemble EMBLA, which brings female composers to the forefront. She is also the Chairman of Evterpe, an organisation for women in music and has published a book with compositions from female composers. Additionally, Christina has worked as a singing and piano teacher for over two decades, working with students of all ages; she is passionate about helping people understand and learn the power of expressing themselves through music.

Christina has a great interest in spiritual development and healing and has so far completed two steps of three of the Divine Oneness course, which educates in spiritual growth and healing.

Anna Brolin [Sweden]

Anna Brolin lives in Hagby, about 10 km from Örsundsbro. Now she is a pensioner but a longer time she has been working as a cantor in Balingsta Parish.

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saturday 3/8 • 19.30 | Gamla Bion
storytelling performance The Maze of Men
with Mia Verbeelen and Mats Rehnman
Mia [Flanders, Belgium] and Mats [Sweden] met each other for the first time on the first European gathering of storytellers in 2001. They have represented their countries on several following storytelling conferences and toured international. Now it’s time to share the stage! For this evening they have chosen their favourite stories that ask the fundamental question: what makes a man? So; welcome to a maze of stories, where men are lost but also found. 

Mia Verbeelen [Belgien]

Mia Verbeelen was working as a theatre director in the Netherlands when storytelling came on her way in 1992. During 13 years she was one of the 8 members of a storytelling company in Tiel, a company that played a significant role in the revival of storytelling in the Netherlands.  

In the beginning of 2000 she started to work as independant storyteller.

She developed her storytelling talent and her repertoire, but also used her organising skills for the development of the art of storytelling: she was envolved with 9 storytelling festivals in the Netherlands (4 in Utrecht and 5 in Amsterdam) and was board member of  the Foundation of Storytelling in the Netherlands.  

Since 2007 Mia Verbeelen is member of the staff and workshop leader at the Vertelacademie in Utrecht. She gives basic storytelling courses and workshops in Alden-Biesen (B), Utrecht and Zwolle.

In 2006 she returned to her hometown Antwerp in Belgium, after 30 years living in Holland

There she has a part-time job as a storyteller for children in a beautiful fairytale-house in the middle of a parc, near the centre of Antwerp.

In 2015 she was Storytelling Ambassador for Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium).  

Mats Rehnman [Sweden]

Mats Rehnman is an internationally known storyteller who has performed in thirty countries, spread over four continents.

His repertoir streches from The Passion to Frankenstein, and from the queer stories in Metamorf to the glowing love stories in Strange Lovers. Mats has written collections of stories and books about storytelling. He trains professional stage artists and coaches new talents. He is a nestor in the renassance of storytelling and is the architect behind the swedish Berättarnätet Sverige and the european storytelling network FEST.

Mats is passionate about the development of storytelling and is constantly busy defining and developing the art when he performs. Still, the highlight for Mats is to sit in his garden, turn the “Storywheel” and tell stories to his grandchildren.

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sunday 4/8 • 19.00 | Gamla Bion
storytelling performance Stories from within
with festival partcipants