Andris Kapusts and Friends - Latvia

 This year, after a few years of break, Andris Kapusts, called a great Latvian folklore master, once known as the "Griezynė mascot", comes back to the festival with the mysteriously named band "Andris Kapusts and Friends". Andris Kapusts has been active in traditional culture for over 35 years and is the founder and leader of several folklore groups. He plays many different Latvian folk instruments - kokle, whistle, bagpipe, accordion. Andris gained skills of playing in folk manner from folk musicians. In addition to singing and music, he organizes and hosts annual festivals, folklore festivals, training seminars, and lectures. Andris has performed at folklore festivals in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, France, Finland, Russia, Japan, USA and elsewhere. He also participated in various "Griezynė" festivals throughout the years. Andris Kapusts will play with three other Latvian musicians this year at Griezynė and perform Latvian folk music of different periods and styles.

Juhan Henrik Uppin - Estonia

Juhan Henrik Uppin is a versatile Estonian diatonic accordion and kannel player whose music is deeply rooted in tradition. He began his kannel studies in 1992 and started to play the Estonian diatonic accordion on his own in 1999. Uppin earned his Master’s degree in music in 2015 after researching the playing style of Karl Kikas, the most influential Estonian diatonic accordion player in the tradition, and recently defended his doctoral thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Music) on describing how the traditional playing style has developed in the 20th century.
Uppin has released five solo albums and is also a member in two ensembles. He teaches the Estonian diatonic accordion and traditional music in different institutions and has been the artistic leader of folk music in Estonian Song and Dance Celebrations three times. Since 2018 Uppin has been the first and till now the only owner of the title of the Traditional Musician of the Republic (Vabariigi Pillimees).

Tuule Kann - Estonia

Tuule Kann is musician and kannel teacher. She studied the chromatic kannel in Tallinn Georg Ots Music College (teacher Els Roode), later in Lithuanian Music Academy (teacher Regina Tamošaitienė). Tuule has step-by-step self-educated herself in traditional kannel playing taking the other Estonian, Finnish, Latvian, Lithuanian and Russian kannel-players as example. In her performance Tuule will introduce the Estonian kannel and its different playing styles on an archaic 10-string instrument and a diatonic village kannel.

Krista & Raivo Sildoja - Estonia

Traditional musicians and teachers and lectors Krista and Raivo Sildoja are great fans of Estonian traditional music making and folk music instruments. They prefer playing the bowed strings. Raivo is also an experienced maker of the väikekannel (little kannel) and hiiu kannel (bowed harp). The family is united by their common interest of the traditional music heritage and its varied performance styles. They have overtaken Estonian folk tunes mostly by listening to archival recordings or studying the notations of the early 20th century and have always given attempts to preserve the original traditional playing manner. Just recently they have gotten the courage to improvise more freely, and even to create their own music taking care of the tradition (see also https://www.rahvamuusika.ee/index.php?s=250). Photo: Janek Marga.

Van trio - Armenia

Instrumental Van trio was formed in 2021 by Dr. Aleksan Zakyan, the president of Armenian National Delphic Committee. The trio consists of young professional musicians Kima Avetisyan, Serob Sargsyan and Gevorg Melikyan. They play Armenian folk music instruments tar, kamancha, duduk, zurna, kanon and dap. Tushpa, later named Van, was the capital of the ancient Urartu kingdom in the historic Armenian Highlands. The trio is still new, however has already given concerts in different regions of Armenia and abroad and has been awarded with high appreciation and prizes. It seeks to represent and popularize rich Armenian folk music world-wide.

Simon John Thoumire & Ian Carr - Scotland

According to a Scottish music reviewer, it is tempting to imagine where Simon John Thoumire might be now, had he concentrated on his own concertina-playing career, and particularly his partnership with guitarist Ian Carr, instead of devoting so much time to the promotion of Scottish folk music via his Scots Trad Music Awards, Young Scottish Traditional Musician of the Year competition and other projects.
Thoumire and Carr play together since their young days and as interpreters and composers are daring and possibly borderline bonkers. The most relevant is the genuine feeling for the music on both players’ part and extraordinary harmonic-rhythmic awareness and nous in Carr’s empathic six string orchestrations  (https://simonthoumire.com/artists/simon-thoumire-and-ian-carr/).

Laughted duo, Ireland

Laughted was formed in 2019 – Caireann Keegan and Aisling Twomey are the duo formed from this band. Aisling is a skilled concertina player, a graduate of the BA in Irish Music and Dance, the University of Limerick. Caireann is a fiddle player who comes from a musical family in Co.Limerick. Caireann and Aisling have been performing together for the past four years. They have performed in various settings and have been featured in various radio and television programmes throughout Ireland. Caireann’s performance experience includes the National Concert Hall of Ireland and she has been also featured on Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann CD’s.

Begebenheit band - Poland

Kashubian ʺBegebenheit band“ was formed in 2020. The German word chosen for their name (meaning ‘by accident, an instance or happening’) indicates a strong German culture impact on Kashubian region. The band consists of a violin (Piotr Kluczek), an accordion (Tobiasz Wenta), a double bass (Maciej Kuchta), and a drum (Paulina Węsierska; she is also a singer). In 2021 the band won the main prize at the ʺCassubia Cantatʺ Festival in Bytów. Main sources for their repertoire are musical and choreographic archival recordings and historical literature of the Kashubian region. They are also greatly inspired by the Jankowski folk band from Chwaszczyno, which performs popular music of the middle of the last century.

Serhii Okhrimchuk – Ukraine

Serhii Okhrimchuk is a renowned professional violinist who has toured extensively around the world. He has mastered a wide range of styles. However, already during his classical violin studies at the Ukrainian National Music Academy he met a circle of folklorists and, at the suggestion of Professor Mykhailo Chai, began to explore the Ukrainian traditional fiddling. Together with the professor, he formed the band Nadobryjdien (cf. a wedding custom), and participated in the folk ensemble Drevo (‚A Tree‘) and other groups. Since 1992 he has had fieldwork throughout Ukraine. At the beginning of the 21st century, he taught ethnic violin at the Academy. He enjoys performing the repertoire of various regions of Ukraine.

Folklore ensemble "Visi" band - Vilnius

The folklore ensemble and band "Visi", formed in 1980, is led by Evaldas Vyčinas, a prominent Lithuanian traditional music performer and ethnomusicologist, associate professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. He plays the violin, Lithuanian zither kanklės, dulcimer, hurdy-gurdy or bagpipe and other winds. Other musicians of the band also play various instruments. From the very beginning, they have been crafting traditional string and wind instruments themselves.
The ensemble also organizes folklore expeditions, primarily in Samogitia. There they overtook dances, which they later performed at dancing parties and concerts in Vilnius. In 1984, a vinyl LP of twelve Samogitian dances performed by the band was published. In 1994, the newly reformed ensemble was invited to the "Griežynė" festival. For the whole week they stayed in a countryside near Molėtai and rehearsed various pieces recorded by Vyčinas and other collectors in Dzūkija, later Aukštaitija and Žemaitija since 1970. Thus, the band's repertoire consists of pieces recorded by themselves in various parts of Lithuania.