JULY 2024 – Note: This is adapted from a message to the Finger Lakes Finns Culture Club for their summer printed newsletter. -Mike Hello all. I am just getting reoriented after traveling for much of July. I spent some time in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont where my wife’s family is from. I came home from that trip to a major power failure on our street in Caroline. The multi-day power outage was followed by a much longer trip to Duluth, Minnesota, for FinnFest USA 2024. Our Finnish dance band Metku was invited to play for one of the evening Read More ..read more

Hello Finnish Dance music fans and followers of Metku. We are just now recovering from a 10 day road tri[ to Duluth MN where we played music 2 out of 4 dance nights and also had a table at the Tori where we sold the new Finnish music book and Michael’s photography. Super fun! We have 2 events coming up with the quartet. This is Phil Robinson on guitar, Katrina Mackey with her fiddle, Richard Koski playing various button accordions and a little fiddle, Michael Ludgate on mandolin. Corning NY – Concert Series at Centerway Square Thursday August 8th 6-8pm https://www.facebook.com/events/4564 ..read more

DULUTH MN – The core Metku duo of Mike and Katrina are heading out to Duluth again this year. We have been invited to play once again for an evening folk and couples dance aka Lavatanssit – one of our favorite things to do! Come visit us Wednesday night in the Gooseberry Room from 8-10pm. We will be join by some local Finnish music experts: Ralph Tuttila, Jaana Tuttila, Eric Platt and Teresa Aho, so we will have a full band. Metku is putting together some dances drawing mostly from our new tune book. We are also hoping to have a table at the Tori, look for us there! Cover photo from last year ..read more

As part of Handwork’s involvement in Ithaca Gallery Night on the 1st Friday of May, METKU Trio will honor their ancestral heritage by sharing traditional Finnish Dance Music of the Finger Lakes. Gallery Night runs from 5pm-8pm. We will be playing music for 2 hours from 5:30pm-7:30pm. Hope to see you there! Handwork, Ithaca’s Artisan Cooperative, 102 W State St, Ithaca, NY, United States, New York METKU – Michael Ludgate (mandolin, kantele, banjo) and Katrina Mackey (fiddle, flute) have both been inspired by their Finnish ancestral heritage to learn more about traditional music and dance of Fin ..read more

Finnish Dance Music Tune Book by Carl Rahkonen This article appeared in the Finnish American Reporter April 2024 issue. If you are interrested in Finnish culture in the US, this is a great printed newspaper to support. Subscription information at the end of this article. Finnish Dance Music of the Finger Lakes of New York State (2023) is perhaps the first tune book devoted entirely to Finnish American dance music.  It came about because of a Folk Arts Apprenticeship granted by the New York Council on the ARTS and the ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes to Richard Koski, a renowned t ..read more

Metku www.metkumusic.org will be playing couples dances, doing a brief presentation on our new tunebook of Finnish dance music and facilitating the open contra tune jam session at Fiddlehead Frolic Sat Mar 30th in Ithaca https://www.hands4dancers.org/upcoming-dances/2024/3/30/fiddlehead-frolic ..read more

DANBY NY – The Danby Community Council Concert Series presents the Finnish American band, Metku on Saturday January 27th 2024. The concert begins at 3:00 pm at the Danby Community Church, 1859 Danby Rd.  Ithaca, NY 14850. Free and open to the public, families and children are welcome. The Finnish American instrumental band Metku will perform with special guest Richard Koski on the two-row diatonic button accordion along with regular Metku members, Katrina Mackey on fiddle, Philip Robinson on guitar, and Michael Ludgate on mandolin. The Metku musicians specialize in traditional Finnish Ame ..read more

We are super excited!! It’s here! “Finnish Dance Music of the Finger Lakes” by Richard Koski, Michael Ludgate, Katrina Mackey. The idea came in 2017 shortly after we had started the band “Metku”, when our folklorist friend Maria Kennedy said to us, “You know there is grant money available to do what you guys are already starting to do”. So we applied for the grant which was a type of heritage arts preservation grant. Richard Koski was was the teacher and Mike and Katrina were the students. Our goal at first was just to learn tunes and write them down for posterity, but we soon started talking ..read more

Hello Finnish Dance music fans. We have 2 events coming up with the quartet. This is Phil Robinson on guitar, Katrina Mackey with her fiddle, Richard Koski playing various button accordions and a little fiddle, Michael Ludgate on mandolin. Corning NY – Concert Series at Centerway Square Thursday August 17th 6-8pm. https://www.facebook.com/events/221201847008929 Ithaca NY – Ithacaa Farmers Market Sunday August 20th 11am-2pm. https://www.facebook.com/events/1315102779080618 Michael Ludgate (mandolin, kantele, banjo) and Katrina Mackey (fiddle, flute) have both been inspired by their Finnish anc ..read more

DULUTH MINNESOTA – We are honored to announce Metku (Richard Koski, Katrina Mackey and Michael Ludgate) has been invited to share our Finnish-American tunes project at FinnFest 2023. We will be playing music for the Finnfest Tori (marketplace), participating in a panel discussion about traditional Finnish-American dance music and also playing for part of the Saturday night dance. We are looking forward to this weekend long event. [ Finnfest Event Site ][ Finnfest Preliminary Schedule ] Here is a sample from the schedule: FRIDAY, JULY 28, 2023 8:00-4:00 Registration Open 9:00-5:00 Tori Open Tor ..read more