In summer 2019 Helena van Heel was invited to give a concert in Boliden, the place in the north of Sweden where she grew up.
Boliden is an old mining town, some 30 km west of the town Skellefteå, where gold was found in 1924. Gold fever broke out and the press wrote about ‘Sweden’s Klondyke’. For decades it was the largest and richest gold mine in Europe. Since 1967 the mine in Boliden has been defunct, but the Boliden Group is still a flourishing company all over the world.
Because of the gold finds the whole society had to be built up; streets, houses, school, church etcetera. The city plan got a fan shape – with Paris as an example!
That was the inspiration for Helena to perform a program with only French music which got the titel ‘Voyage à Paris’, after Francis Poulenc’s song with the same titel.
Recording: Dick Snellenberg
The characteristic of the Midsummer Festivities in Sweden is above all the celebration of the light nights, after a long dark winter. In 2017 Helena was asked to sing at a Midsummer Concert in Landskyrkan, Skellefteå which started at 11PM – the sun still shining!
Anders Lindberg, piano
Recording: Dick Snellenberg