Katarina Barruk is one of the few remaining speakers and the only internationally celebrated singer of Ume Sami, a critically endangered Sami language. Ume Sami is spoken by a handful of communities across the Sapmi region in north‑east Sweden. Barruk brings Ume Sami to global stages, performing joik‑based songs recomposed with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra under violinist‑conductor Pekka Kuusisto at the Royal Albert Hall. The Prom functions as a symbol of hope and defiance for Ume Sami and other Indigenous peoples of Sapmi. Barruk's family, including a reindeer‑herding brother, will attend, emphasizing cultural survival and renewed visibility.
When I was growing up, I couldn't listen to any bands or artists in my language, says Katarina Barruk. She is one of only a handful of remaining speakers and the only one of whom is an internationally celebrated singer of Ume Sami, one of the nine living Sami languages that today is on Unesco's critically endangered list. It's spoken by a handful of Sami communities living across the part of Sapmi (the territory of the Sami peoples across northern Scandinavia)
It's amazing. And not only to hear the language, but experience it sung by Barruk in her own music, recomposed and remade with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. They'll be led by the violinist and conductor Pekka Kuusisto, in a Prom that will take the audience on a journey into my universe, she says, so that people can understand that this language is alive.
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