TRADITIONS -- JAERV & THE OK FACTOR

Doors: 3:30PM
Concert: 4:30PM

General Admission Tickets: $32
VIP Tickets (which include a gourmet food sampling menu): $50

All tickets include a complimentary glass of wine. VIP tickets must be purchased at least 3 days prior to the concert; they cannot be purchased at the door.

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Minneapolis-based string duo The OK Factor and award-winning Swedish quintet Jaerv are thrilled to present Traditions — a program celebrating the beauty of cultural exchange through music.

Join us for a concert experience that explores the art of collaboration through unique instrumentation and sensitive musical interplay, creating a joyful and heartfelt experience. Through shared performances and the study of traditional Swedish and American folk music, the two groups have developed a natural and dynamic partnership that resonates deeply with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. Their performances radiate warmth, humor, and authenticity — qualities that audiences carry home long after the final note.

Joel Hagen - flute, whistles, soprano saxophone, vocals

Markus Gustavsson - fiddle, lead vocals

Tobias Hedlund - percussion, vocals, pump organ

Harald Nilsson - guitars, vocals

Anders Bergsten - double bass, nyckelharpa, vocals

Olivia Diercks - cello

Karla Peters - violin

All tickets include one complimentary glass of wine. In order to complete your listening experience with a gourmet sampling of The Elizabeth’s banquet menu, please purchase a VIP ticket ($50). Food is only available during the concert event with the purchase of a VIP ticket.

Many thanks to our Presenting Sponsors of The Magic Sunset Series: Denise Staab & Tamara Suppes, Realtors at The Group.

Minneapolis, MN-based string duo The OK Factor, and award-winning Swedish quintet Jaerv, are excited to present their program, Traditions.

Following joint tours across Sweden (2021, 2023, and 2025) and the United States (2022, 2023, and 2024), the ensembles are excited to share the music and camaraderie that have grown from years of collaboration and friendship.

The partnership began in 2017, when The OK Factor opened for Jaerv at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. An immediate connection formed — grounded in a shared admiration for each other’s artistry, rhythmic intricacies, melodic ornamentation, and, of course, musical traditions.

After shared performances and the study of traditional Swedish and American music throughout their tour of Sweden, a natural and organic partnership has developed between The OK Factor and Jaerv that is felt, seen, and heard by their audiences, both in Sweden and in the US.

Throughout Traditions, the bands hone the art of collaboration through unique instrumentation and sensitive musical interplay, creating a palpable joy that their audiences will carry home. And for those who can’t make it to the concert, the bands are seasoned educators, and are excited to offer community outreach in a myriad of settings, including schools. Through a respect for musical tradition paired with the desire to expand its boundaries, the bands encourage their audiences to follow it not just back in time, but into the future.

About Swedish Band Jaerv

Jaerv is an award-winning Swedish quintet, which presents extroverted, vigorous and heartfelt traditional music with influences from both jazz and pop music. Together Joel Hagen (flute, whistles, soprano saxophone, vocals), Anders Bergsten (double bass, nyckelharpa, vocals), Harald Nilsson (guitars, vocals), Markus Gustavsson (fiddle, lead vocals) and Tobias Hedlund (percussion, vocals, pump organ) have created a homogeneous, vivid sound which has established Jaerv on the traditional music scene. Rooted in several different musical traditions, Jaerv has made a global name for itself, touring in the U.S., Japan, Spain, Scotland, Ireland, Finland, Norway and more. Equally recognized by their traditional music peers as from popular music press like Billboard.

“Jaerv takes the elements of traditional Scandinavian music and reflects them through a modern prism, with an all-acoustic sound that nonetheless takes a bevy of tricky turns in rhythm and harmony that makes the pleasant rural melodies ring with a contemporary complexity” (Pop Matters). 

"They are singing, playing, storytelling and are so terribly good. The audience is knocked out by their performance!" (Susanne Rydén - President of the Royal Academy of Music)  

"One of Sweden's most inventive folk bands." (Nordstjernan US-magazine)

Selected US-touring 2019-2020 - Cedar Cultural Center (Minneapolis), Old Town School of Folk Music (Chicago), House of Sweden (Washington DC), Blackstone River Theatre (Cumberland), The Ware Center, (Lancaster), Calvin University (Grand Rapids)

About Minneapolis, MN Duo The OK Factor

Olivia Diercks and Karla Peters - cellist and violinist of the new-classical crossover duo, The OK Factor - have one word to describe their musical connection: lucky. The almost telepathic way they respond to one another is palpable to the audiences they capture during performances, as is their spontaneity and joy. Organic and genuine, their original compositions and arrangements feel both comfortingly familiar and uniquely fresh, and have been described as "genre-bending" (Julie Amacher, MPR) and "pure magic" (Wausau Pilot & Review).

Celebrating 10 years of writing, performing, and touring, The OK Factor has honed in on ways they can impact the communities they visit outside the concert hall. Residency work has become a deep passion - sharing intimate performances, conducting outreach activities, and leading workshops for students through their education initiative, ATLAS. Olivia and Karla are also sought-after collaborators and composers-in-residence, having worked with many regional, national, and international artists, and various digital music libraries.

The OK Factor’s distinct compositional and performance style awarded them the honor of being finalists for the prestigious McKnight Fellowships for Musicians in 2018, and Artist Fellowship recipients for Scandinavian Folk Arts and Cultural Traditions through the American Scandinavian Foundation in 2020. The duo has produced five studio albums of their original pieces and arrangements: Water Street ('14), That's Enough of That ('16), Have Yourself an OK Christmas ('17), Season’s Greetings (‘20), and OKX (due to release in the spring of ‘23).