Ánnámáret is the performing name of Sámi musician Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman. Ánnámáret performs yoik, a distinctive singing and songwriting tradition of the Sámi people, and also plays clarinet. From 2012 to 2015, she worked as the Regional Artist for Sámi Culture. Her band Ánnámáret Ensemble has released two recordings of yoiks and songs for which she composed music and lyrics in the Sámi language. In recent years, she has explored the yoik tradition of her family by studying archival tapes of family members. Through this work, she has created the multi-form work of art called Nieguid duovdagat (Dreamscapes), in which yoiking, the playing of the bowed lyre called a jouhikko, and modern live electronics are combined with live visuals. Ánnámáret’s strength as an artist springs from having grown up between two cultures and, thus, in understanding these cultures and their collisions and similarities. For her Homegrown concert, Ánnámáret will be joined by two members of her Nieguid duovdagat project: Ilkka Heinonen, who specialises in folk music on the jouhikko, G-violone and contrabass; and Turkka Inkilä, who plays flutes and electronic instruments.
The American Folklife Center is co-sponsoring this concert with the Embassy of Finland.