19. 08. - 20. 08. 2025

Song for the River (H2OMANAUS – An Unconventional Musical Experience)

Experience an evening when the river becomes both the stage and the performer. A clay sculpture will rise on the surface of the Váh, resonating with traditional Finnish healing singing. It’s not a concert in the usual sense – rather a shared, focused experience where the voice is directed not at the audience but into the water. We wonder – can a river be healed by a voice?

About the event

“Song for the River” is a live performance by Finnish artist Pia Lindman, known for connecting art, science, and environmental themes. In collaboration with scientists and students from several countries, she explored the mud of the Váh River to investigate how specific frequencies and sound waves can stimulate microorganisms and support water purification.

The core of the evening is a musical performance based on the traditional Finnish healing technique called Manaus – singing and reciting chants to support recovery. The performance is also participatory: visitors are invited to silently observe, perceive, and – if they wish – become part of the experiment with their own voice.

Featuring

  1. Sainkho Namtchylak – throat singer (Tuva)
  2. Tuomas Rounakari – violinist and singer (Finland)
  3. Eva Šušková – soprano (Slovakia)

Curator: Lýdia Pribišová 

Who is the event for?

This event is for everyone curious to experience something new, perceive art differently, reflect on our relationship with the river – or simply be there when someone sings for the Váh.

No prior knowledge or experience is needed – just come with an open heart.

When and where

19 and 20 August 2025 at 18:00
Dock by the Váh, Trenčín

Traffic restriction


We would like to inform you about a traffic restriction due to the closure of the underpass to Sihoť. Drivers will need to take a detour via the “Pred poľom” underpass, or if coming from Trenčianska Teplá, they can also use the Opatová overpass. Public transport will operate on temporarily changed routes.
More info: https://trencin.sk/…/od-16-augusta-bude-docasne…/

Workshop

26–31 August 2025 • 18:00 • Lodenica Trenčín • 30 minutes
Only 6 spots per day.

Finnish artist Pia Lindman invites you to an intimate Singing for the River workshop, where you don’t need any prior experience – only the desire to experiment, play, and discover new sounds of your voice.

Curatorial text

About artists

Eva Šušková

Eva Šušková – Slovak artist, educator, performer, and composer – has established herself as a distinctive figure in Slovakia’s chamber and concert music scene, including various forms of musical theatre. In Slovak opera houses and on international stages, she has portrayed several significant classical roles in the past, such as Tatiana, Desdemona, Rusalka, Suzel, and Fiordiligi. She has also staged monodramas including Pierrot Lunaire and Erwartung by Arnold Schoenberg, The Raven by Toshio Hosokawa, Bluebeard’s Castle by Béla Bartók, and the chamber opera Into the Little Hill by George Benjamin. Her work includes the performance and recording of Hummel’s opera Mathilde de Guise as well as the creation of eight world premieres of original Slovak operas (Beneš, Kubička, Solovic).

As a soloist, Eva Šušková has appeared at numerous domestic and international festivals, collaborating with prominent conductors, orchestras, ensembles, artistic groups, and fellow soloists. She has recorded for Brilliant Classics, Phaedra, Dynamic, Real Music House, Slovak Radio, the Music Fund, the Music Centre, and other publishers. She has contributed to more than thirty CD recordings, seven of which are award-winning profile albums.

Her long-term focus also includes original compositional projects and music-theatre performances. She has co-created projects with a unique artistic signature – Babylon Tower, Shaped Songs, Symptom: Child, Duo, Bluebeard’s Castle, Šušková / Adamčiak: Constellations / Permutations, and many others.

She works systematically with children, for whom she has created numerous original concerts, workshops, and music classes. She collaborates with the international organisation Superar, which provides high-quality, free music education to children from diverse backgrounds, and she is actively involved in training music educators.

She is the recipient of the Tatra Banka Foundation Award for Art in the Young Creator category (2013), the Radio_Head Award for Best Album of the Year in Classical Music (2015 and 2024), several nominations for the same award in the categories of experimental, classical, and jazz music, the Frico Kafenda Prize awarded by the Music Fund for exceptional interpretative artistic achievements (2016), and the Special Radio_Head Award (2024) for her activities in music education.

Sainkho Namtschylak

A woman, a writer, a singer, an artist, a person with the deepest desire and need to express her innermost voice, her soul, her deepest thoughts, and her true feelings. Sainkho Namtchylak invites us to accompany her on her endless journey into new territories, exploring the unknown and the wonders of life. She is driven by a force greater than herself, and she knows that her expression lies on a long continuum. She touches us with painful cries, gentle sounds, naked truth, and the balm of tender gestures. She is generous to us, opens her heart, and shows us her vulnerability. What she says is very precious. We should be careful with the gift she gives us. Just read, just listen, just follow the narrative…
Bert Noglik (Jazzpodium)

Tuomas Rounakari

Tuomas Rounakari (violin: solo, Yasuharu Takanashi’s Far East Groove, Korpiklaani 2012–2022) is an internationally renowned Finnish violinist, composer, and ethnomusicologist. As a one-man band, he fuses violin, vocals, stomping, and ankle bells into a distinctive performance style. He also plays the traditional Khanty bowed instrument from Siberia, the Ning-juh.
His doctoral research (2024) focuses on altered states of consciousness through music—a phenomenon tied to sacred song traditions worldwide. This inquiry informs his performance style, which often crosses into trance and ceremony.
Tuomas draws inspiration from dialogues between humanity and nature, the seen and unseen, the ancient and the future. His debut solo album Shamanviolin was born from studying early 20th-century wax-cylinder recordings from Siberia. Performing his versions of these songs to the Indigenous communities from which they originated led to long-term collaborations with Khanty, Mansi, Sámi, and Greenlandic artists.
With over 30 albums to his name—including two solo records and four with Korpiklaani (over 34 million Spotify streams annually)—his work spans folk, metal, blues, free jazz, and avant-garde electroacoustic soundscapes.
His latest solo album, Bear Awakener (released April 14th, 2022), is a sonic invocation, an awakening of the wild spirit within. Each track stirs ancient memory, calling forth the slumbering forces of nature, myth, and spirit.
The album centers on bear-related ceremonial songs from Khanty, Mansi, Carelian, and Finnish traditions. These songs carry the resonance of ancestors who lived in deep, reciprocal relationships with the land—cultures rooted in sustainability, self-sufficiency, and sacred balance. For Tuomas, they are living teachings, not just songs.
Rooted in ancestral songlines and shaped by trance, Bear Awakener invites listeners into deeper dialogue with the unseen, the more-than-human, and the mythic. It is not just music—it is a reawakening of spirit and a reconnection to something older than memory, yet urgently needed in our time.

Details

Location

Language

Accessibility

Contact

Belongs to the project

Basic information

Date and time

Place

Admission

Details

Location

Language

Accessibility

Contact

Events & activities

Selected volunteer activities

Let's stay in touch

Subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss anything!