🗓️ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28 | 7:30 PM
📍THE MONARCH
A Skye Consort & Emma Björling concert in Ogden sounds like a secret the rest of the folk world already knows: Swedish polskas flowing into Celtic reels, a sea shanty that channels both Mumford & Sons and Philip Glass, and a voice so singular it reshapes every song it touches. Onstage Ogden presents this OPUS Award-winning trans-Atlantic chamber folk ensemble at The Monarch on Wednesday, April 228 at 7:30 PM.
The group was born from a happy accident. In 2017, a cancelled flight stranded Swedish singer Emma Björling in Montréal alongside members of Skye Consort, a collective rooted in the early music world through their long collaboration with the renowned Canadian ensemble La Nef. What started as an impromptu session grew into a full partnership, pulling songs and tunes from Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Scotland, England, Québec, and Acadia into arrangements that feel both ancient and entirely new.
The instrumentation alone is worth the ticket. Nyckelharpa (a Swedish keyed fiddle that looks like it walked out of a Renaissance workshop), cello, bouzouki, banjo, shruti box, and layered vocals create a sonic palette you simply won’t hear from anyone else. CBC Music called their arrangements “masterful and varied.” Their self-titled debut won the OPUS Award for Album of the Year in the World Music and Traditional Québec Music categories. Their second record, Ode & Ballade (2024), explores medieval narratives, drinking songs, heartbreaking love songs, and celebrations of spring. Half original compositions, half traditional material drawn from centuries of storytelling across two continents.
The Monarch’s renovated industrial setting in Ogden’s Nine Rails Creative District is built for a show like this. Intimate sightlines. Warm acoustics. The kind of room where you hear the bow cross the strings and the breath before a note lands. If you were at Maeve Gilchrist, Twisted Pine, or Rakish and left wanting more of that feeling, this is your next night out.
Skye Consort & Emma Björling perform at The Monarch in Ogden on Wednesday, April 28, 2027 at 7:30 PM.
