Tango–Guitar–Flamenco Week: Murtola, Widenius & Mugu – Northern Flamenco

The flamenco trio Murtola, Widenius & Mugu brings together two key figures in Finnish flamenco music and an Estonian-born dancer based in Madrid. Anna Murtola’s voice, Joonas Widenius’s guitar and Ingrid Mugu’s dance create a performance in which flamenco tradition meets the northern landscape, personal expression and the living stage art of today.

The concert features both the deeper shades of traditional flamenco and lighter pieces. Murtola and Widenius’s joint album, released in 2025, offers an important starting point for the trio’s expression: Spanish flamenco tradition is joined by colours drawn from Finnish folk heritage and the northern soundscape. Ingrid Mugu’s luminous dance brings a physical, visual and rhythmic dimension to the music.

Anna Murtola

“– she succeeds connecting flamenco with Nordic music traditions and modern soundscapes of Oulu. That sounds more logical than it seems at first glance.”

– Concerto Magazine (AU)

Anna Murtola, from Oulu, is known as the world’s northernmost flamenco singer. Her expression is firmly rooted in flamenco tradition, while also carrying the ruggedness, openness and silence of the North. A charismatic performer, Murtola moves naturally between concert stages, collaborations with dancers and multidisciplinary artistic projects.

Murtola’s album La Tierra Blanca combines the northern landscape of sound and soul with the Spanish flamenco tradition. The same idea is present in this trio: flamenco appears not only as a Spanish tradition, but as a language through which northern roots, memory and landscape can also speak.

Joonas Widenius

“The ten fingers are more than alive!”

– Simmern, Thomas Torkler, Germany

Originally from Tornio, Joonas Widenius is one of Finland’s best-known flamenco and fusion guitarists. His playing is grounded in the rhythmic force and rich sonority of the flamenco guitar, but his own musical language also opens towards jazz, Finnish folk music and impressions of the northern natural world.

In Widenius’s guitar playing, virtuosity is never an end in itself, but part of a living dialogue with song and dance. In this trio, his role is both rhythmic engine and melodic storyteller: the guitar breathes alongside Murtola’s voice and gives Mugu’s dance a strong, impulsive foundation.

Ingrid Mugu

Ingrid Mugu is an Estonian-born, Madrid-based flamenco dancer, choreographer and educator of the younger generation. She has studied choreography at Tallinn University, flamenco at the Fundación Cristina Heeren in Seville, and Spanish dance at the Dance Conservatory of Seville.

Mugu’s dance combines a broad background in movement, a strong understanding of flamenco and a sensitive stage presence. Her work Soledad was nominated for an Estonian national theatre award in 2023, and her career has taken her to perform and teach in several European cities. Alongside Murtola and Widenius, Mugu brings a physical intensity to the trio, making the rhythms of the music visible.

Please also note: Saturday, Sept 19 – Flamenco guitar workshop with Joonas Widenius. A flamenco guitar workshop open to active participants and observers. Duration: approx. 90 minutes. Time to be announced later. The course is free of charge. Please register via the link.

The event is part of the Tango–Guitar–Flamenco Week program. Tampere Tango Festival, Tampere Guitar Festival and Tampere Flamenco Week together form the Tango—Guitar—Flamenco Week, which will be held from 11 to 20 September 2026.