Introducing the Artist Curators

Meet our Artist Curators:

JOANA NEGRÃO (SEIVA / A CANTADEIRA)

Joana Negrão is a singer, songwriter and musician (Portuguese Bagpipe, Adufe and galician tamborine).

She graduated from Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas of Lisbon in History and Archeology but her passion to the past led her, in the last 15 years, in the searching for the portuguese traditional old songs and the percussions played by women. She also had Classical Singing Technique with Ana Leonor Pereira and bagpipe classes in the Portuguese Association for the Study of the Portuguese Bagpipe. She worked with Dazkarieh from 2006- 2014 with whom she recorded 5 albums and made concerts around the world. Seiva is her actual group also based on the portuguese musical traditions, with a first album recorded in 2014 and a new one coming out in 2021. Seiva already played in festivals like Folk Hebst in Germany, Eurofonik festival in Nantes (France) the Ghanafest Festival in Malta and the Night of the Arts, Helsinki, Finland. They also did showcases for WestWay Lab, in the BIME City of Bilbao, at SIM São Paulo, and are INES Talent 2020 selection. They also played and streamed live for NAMM Festival in 2021.

She founded Repasseado agency who’s in charge of booking and/or mangment of Seiva, Omiri, Bicho Carpinteiro, Lusitanian Ghosts and her new solo project A Cantadeira. 

She gave traditional music classes to the preschool between 2013 and 2019 and nowadays she teaches traditional songs and culture in Academia de Música e Belas Artes Luísa Todi, in Setúbal.

FRODE FJELLHEIM

Frode Fjellheim is a Norwegian composer and musician (piano, synthesizer and joik). He is best known for his band Transjoik and as the composer of the song “Eatnemen Vuelie”, which in an adapted version called «Vuelie», is the opening musical number of the Disney film «Frozen». Fjellheim was educated at the Classical program at Trøndelag Musikkonservatorium (1980–84). 

He has a long list of commissioned works for festivals and various musical ensembles. He has also composed a lot of theatre music, music for documentaries, TV and several short films.

During the 1990s, he headed his namesake band Jazz Joik Ensemble, which later became Transjoik. Mari Boine, Ulla Pirttijärvi, Katarina Barruk, Anne Vada, Hildegunn Øiseth, Iren Reppen and Tone Hulbækmo are some of the other artists that Fjellheim has worked with. Decca records released an album with some of Fjellheim´s choral works in 2017 – performed by Cantus (the choir singing Vuelie on the Frozen opening). Fjellheim holds a professorate at Nord University.

MISIA FURTAK

Misia Furtak graduated from University of Maastricht, Berklee College of Music and Collegium Civitas. She has her own radio show on the public Polish radio channel RDC (Radio dla Ciebie) entitled Pałac kultury (Palace of Culture). She received the Fryderyk Award for Best Debut Album of the year in 2011 (with Très.b) and was awarded the prestigious Paszport Polityki in 2012 in the Music category. In 2013 she was a laureate of the Grzegorz Ciechowski Art Award of the City of Toruń. 

She was born in Zielona Góra, although she soon moved with her parents to Grodzisk Mazowiecki and Warsaw. She spoke about her background in an interview with the portal MiastoKobiet.pl: “My whole family are Lemkos from Beskid Niski. Some of them feel that Lemkos are a Ukrainian ethnic group, therefore they feel more Ukrainian. For example, my mothers older brother. My mum on the other hand feels like a Pole with Lemko roots, yet my grandmother feels like a Lemko.” Her latest album release was 2019’s bi-lingual “Co przyjdzie?”.

“I really like the Polish language, I believe it’s very graceful. When I write in English, I write more in prose, in a form of historical cause-and-effect. On the other hand, when I write in Polish, I play with the language matter itself – rhymes, syllables. I also think that I have a different timbre of voice when I sing in Polish, something new is unleashed in my voice.” – Gazeta Wyborcza interview.

NEIL LEYTON (LUSITANIAN GHOSTS)

Neil Leyton is a Portuguese-Canadian singer, songwriter and music entrepreneur. Co-Founder of the Lusitanian Ghosts chordophone collective, Leyton has released several solo albums alongside numerous side projects over his 30 year recording career, started in Canada in the 1990’s with projects such as Passion d’Flower and The Conscience Pilate.

He straddles both the creative as well as the business side of the music eco-system via his SCL-Lusitanian label group and his music publishing activities, as well as extensive music business trade association and music export experience, with institutional work both in Portugal and on an European level over the last decade.

Lusitanian Ghosts performed at Reeperbahn Festival 2019 and their sophomore album “Exotic Quixotic”, recorded at Clouds Hill just before the pandemic struck in 2020, will be released during the Summer of 2021.

HANS STOP (TREES UP NORTH)

Hans Jørgen Støp is Associate professor in Music Production at the Department of Music, Nord University. He has held this position since 2005. He graduated from the music performance studies in Jazz (Vocal) at the Trondelag Music Conservatory in 1994, but has own his reputation as a singer/composer/producer in the Grammy award winning Norwegian Rock Band Locomotives (signed to BMG/Sony Scandinavia and Mammoth Records, U.S) in the years 1994-2004. 

He has also for the last twenty years produced over 15 official Album releases, and written songs for other artists, movies and television series. He combines his knowledge of the professional music industry with the academical/educational view of a developer/researcher.

His self-titled album as Trees Up North is being released this February.