From idea to experience
Read about the festival and its founders
Concerts in surroundings close to nature
The summer of 2025 featured the third edition of the Arkipelag Kammarmusikfestival! The festival was a bit different from previous years, and between August 7 and 9, audiences could follow four cellists on a mini-tour around Nacka.
The festival began with a full evening in the magnificent Storängssalen. The tour then continued to Pumphuset Bistro and Svindersvik Bygghus, where visitors could combine the music experience with dinner or fika, or take a stroll among apple trees and water in the idyllic surroundings of Svindersvik gård.
Together, the cellists performed music for cello quartet. The program included both arrangements and original works, ranging from Argentine tango and impressionistic melancholy to exciting compositions by, among others, Grazyna Bacewicz and Rudolf Matz.
The four cellists are all childhood friends who met at the Little Academy of Music. They later studied at various institutions across Europe but had now returned to Stockholm, where they work as orchestral and chamber musicians as well as soloists.
Founders
Arkipelag Chamber Music Festival was founded by Saga de Léon and Selma Aanonsen, and the two of them now runs the festival together.
SAGA DE LEON
The initiator behind the festival is the cellist Saga de Leon. Saga grew up in Huddinge and now lives in Stockholm after a long period of studies in Denmark. She has a master's degree from the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen and an advanced postgraduate diplo,a from the Southern Danish Conservatory of Music in Odense, and has also studied with Hans Jørgen Jensen in Chicago.
Nowadays, Saga is a freelance orchestral musician and works daily in a large number of Swedish and Danish orchestras; including Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Swedish Opera and Copenhagen Phil. She got the inspiration for a festival close to nature and the sea in Stockholm from her father, who is a captain and during her entire upbringing owned and operated a ship in Mälaren and Stockholm's beautiful archipelago.
SELMA AANONSEN
Selma is, alongside Saga, the founder and organiser of Arkipelag Chamber Music Festival. She has extensive experience as a cultural project manager and administrator in the field of music, having previously worked for various orchestras and festivals, including Skallsjö Sommarorkester and LYRC Orchestra.
Arkipelag Kammarmusikfestival
Arkipelag Chamber Music Festival was founded as a non-profit organisation in the spring of 2023. The organisation is based in Stockholm and aims to organise a chamber music festival each summer near nature and/or water in Stockholm County. The organization works to make chamber music accessible to a wide audience and to promote music by female composers.