Laura Loge is a soprano, Nordic song and chamber music specialist, mom, urban chicken farmer, and native of Montana. Between earning degrees from St. Olaf College and the New England Conservatory of Music, she spent several years in Norway and Italy where she learned to love and embrace their cultures, languages, and foods. She has self-managed her career as a soprano soloist for nearly two decades, was the Artistic Director of the Mostly Nordic Chamber Music series when it was hosted by the National Nordic Museum, is founder and president of the Northwest Edvard Grieg Society, and continues the Nordic Chamber Music series, forging a new chapter for it in multiple venues. 

Steven Luksan is a composer, pianist, and educator making music in Seattle, WA, USA.  He is a pianist at Seattle Opera, on faculty at Music Center of the Northwest, and is the accompanist for the Seattle Mannskor (The Norwegian Male Chorus of Seattle). He currently serves as Composer-in-Residence with the Northwest Edvard Grieg Society and is the founder and artistic director of the Saltwater Music Series (Des Moines, WA), a concert series dedicated to performances of local and off-the-beaten-path chamber music. 

This folk song, sung by Norwegian immigrants in their new homeland and published in the early editions of the Sons of Norway Songbook, asks a question that was important for people starting from scratch in the US: Can you ever forget where you came from? Must one forget their heritage to start anew?

Arranged by Steven Luksan for this program, this bilingual setting of the song highlights the process through which Norwegian immigrants assimilated into American culture, with their Norwegian language giving way to English.

Christian Sinding was a renowned composer in his day, so much so that he was sought out by the newly-founded Eastman School of Music to be one of their first composition professors.  One of his few songs utilizing an English text, Sinding composed this "Cradle Song" while living in Rochester, NY.