ICE by Ulla-Lena Lundberg: A Three-Part Series
Finlandia Foundation National created this three-part series about ICE, one of the most popular stories in Finland. IS (Swedish) or JÄÄ (Finnish) was told first in the best-selling novel by Ulla-Lena Lundberg, and then as an opera composed by Jaakko Kuusisto and performed by the Finnish National Opera.
It is the story of a pastor and his young family, new to a community in the rugged Finnish archipelago.
A visit and conversation on location in Åland, Finland with Ulla-Lena Lundberg, whose father was a minister in Kökar, her birthplace and summer home.
She talks with FFN Trustees Hanna Wagner (at left) and Betsey Norgard (right) about the remote islands and how—through intersections of fact and fiction—she connects the story of young Pastor Kummel and his family to her own family’s life there.
An interview with composer Jaakko Kuusisto
Jaakko Kuusisto, composer of Jää (Ice), the opera, in an exclusive conversation with filmmaker Pekka Hako in Finland, in August of 2021. The Finnish National Opera production premiered in January of 2019. Sadly, Jaakko Kuusisto passed away in February of 2022 after battling brain cancer.
Exclusive Opera Streaming Event
For the third program, Finlandia Foundation was honored to be granted exclusive online viewing of a broadcast in 2021 of the staged opera, for a limited time only to members of Finlandia Foundation and its affiliated chapters.