Sarah Granskou

“His lashes got hot, and soon his gaze went wild and caught and burned all the tunes he’d learned as a child. Embers remember the spark. Even in the dark…” (by SG, from “Playing with Fire”)

In the old Norse tongue, to “kve” indicates both singing and telling. Sarah Granskou has developed a niche as a contemporary scald (Nordic bard), applying her Canadian sense of innovation to Scandinavian oral tradition. While Sarah draws on ancient art forms, her works are accessible today and relate to her own adventurous experiences or her interpretations of Nordic folklore. Her unique poetic narrative is a humorous and moving context for song, fiddle and jaw harp music, while her puppetry is uniquely constructed of such materials as violin and bow parts.

Granskou’s first profound cultural experience in Norway was, in fact, amongst the Sami reindeer herders of the North, where she learned their wordless singing. Then, with her great-grandfather’s fiddle in her backpack, Sarah traveled extensively on ski, hut-to-hut in southern Norway. Upon exposure to the music and stories of her ancestry, she responded through what she calls a “genetic memory”. Working on farms in Norway, she learned traditional singing and to play the 8-string Hardanger fiddle, becoming involved with the people on a personal level. Sarah has since studied Norwegian folk music independently and with the support of the Canadian Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

Sarah’s varied background in theatre with such companies as Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador, has also inspired her solo performance career. Since 2000, Sarah has presented musical story theatre extensively throughout North America. Her evolving performances have reached hundreds of community and school audiences. Sarah has performed original and traditional works at dozens of festivals including:
Festival of Friends
The Mill Race Festival of Traditional Folk Music
Hillside Festival
Yukon International Storytelling Festival
Edmonton Storytelling Festival
Toronto Storytelling Festival
Latitudes Storytelling Festival,
The St. Mary's Storytelling Series
Jamestown Scandinavian Festival
Høstfest
Trondheim Literature Festival
Oslo International Poetry Festival.

She was featured for the opening of the Viking exhibit at the Museum of Civilization and as an opening act for such musicians as Oliver Schroer and The Arrogant Worms. Sarah’s works have been released by Ensemble Polaris on the album "Midnight Sun", and aired on the CBC and through national media in Norway. Sarah was chosen to represent the Storytellers of Canada on a school tour with the 2007 Children’s Book Week and to collaborate with the K-W Symphony in their Kinderconcert series. The Region of Waterloo Arts Fund made possible the 31 performances she conducted in local schools in 2009.

As an educator, Sarah has led storytelling and music workshops throughout North America, often teaching a hand craft or puppet construction simultaneously. More recently, Sarah has trained as a teacher and has taught oral literacy and drama as a visiting artist in schools and for summer programs. She leads a storytelling and puppetry program for children, entitled “Trolls, Elves and Our Magical Selves”, for the Laurier Enrichment Academic Program.

“Sarah is a multi-talented performer with an amazing degree of artistic versatility…and spellbound her audience.”
(Knut Nesse, Norwegian Trade Council)

“Sarah reaches them, and they relate!...”
(Olav Jortveit, Telemark regional newspaper)