Teodor Wolgers

About the Performance

With “Episode in Viken Chapel on Tour,” grandson Teodor Wolgers takes his melodies and grandfather Beppe Wolgers’ poems on a journey across the country. It becomes a kind of crack in time, between then and now, before and after. It is a story about heritage and environment, about family bonds and humanity’s relationship to nature, to God, to one’s family.

Teodor Wolgers (b. 1993) never met his grandfather, the great poet, lyricist, satirist, and actor Beppe Wolgers (1928–1986). In an attempt to get to know his grandfather, he traveled in the summer of 2023 to the Jämtland region that Beppe had depicted several times in poems and in the film Dunderklumpen! (1974). He brought with him a copy of Beppe Wolgers’ poetry collection Episode in Viken Chapel – about an incident last summer (1973), which Beppe wrote after discovering Viken Chapel in the village of Frostviken on a summer day in 1972. The small parish hall also inspired the LP Det for två vita duvor (1973), which Beppe recorded in the chapel together with organist Merit Hemmingson.
The same chapel became the starting point for the album that his grandson Teodor Wolgers made there 50 years later. Inspired by Beppe’s poetry collection, he composed melodies that were recorded under the direction of producer Hampus Norén and with guest performances by Jämtland natives Annika Norlin, Merit Hemmingson, and Kjell-Erik Eriksson. The record also features an 8-member choir with people from the village, which the chapel’s caretaker helped to assemble.

Viken Chapel is an auditory art collage where Teodor’s compositions interact with Jämtland folk music, set poems, and sounds from nature and the water outside the chapel, where everything was recorded. Grandfather Beppe is also present on the record, in the form of surviving voice recordings. The album is thus a kind of crack in time, between then and now, before and after. It is a story about heritage and environment, about family bonds and humanity’s relationship to nature, to God, to one’s family.

The album will be released on May 16, and the same day a tour with a performance based on the music will be announced. Teodor Wolgers explains:
I will perform the album live together with projections of films in the background. They are from Jämtland, filmed by me and my grandfather. It will be like a performance where I will also tell stories about my grandfather, the texts, and our encounter.

“Episode in Viken Chapel on Tour” is presented by Rush Ent. and United Stage.

About Teodor Wolgers:
At age 22, Teodor Wolgers became the youngest student from the Royal College of Music ever to have a work performed in Berwaldhallen (Dreams, 2016). He has collaborated with the world-renowned philosopher Martin Hägglund and folk musician Sara Parkman on the albums Distractions in a Capitalist World (2021) and Dialogues (2023), respectively. He has written television music, and the EP hopes (2019) has over 20 million streams on Spotify. The album Viken Chapel is his most personal work to date.

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