A Finland Journey:
The Rise of the Bards

An American Bard
Pursuing Väinämöinen:
“Teach me”, I ask.

I am so grateful to have been awarded a 2026 Finlandia Foundation National grant.

This grant enables me to travel Finland for the month of July 2026, in order to:

  • Study the runolaulu (ancient poem-songs from which the national epic The Kalevala originates)

  • Study the poetic Kalevala meter

  • Spiritually experience learning to play my new kantele in the Finnish natural landscape

  • Get to know the Finnish ethos of sisu, communities, land, and what The Happiest Country on Earth can teach Americans

  • Develop a new one-person Bardic performance set within Finnish mythology, to ignite the imagination and spirit of new audiences of America, Finnish and otherwise.

  • Premiere the performance at Nordic Northwest in Portland, Oregon around National Kalevala Day 2027.

THE BARD

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

Casey Schissler, also known as The Bard, is a multidisciplinary artist, storyteller, poet, writer, performer, and mythologist dedicated to the living, contemporary revitalization of ancient Western European oral traditions, in order to answer the seminal question: “Why is mythology relevant to the modern mind?”.

Utilizing the concept that the primordial Bards were the original rock stars of humankind, Schissler synthesizes a powerful rock-and-opera-forward style in counterpoint with the ancient Greek lyre and Finnish kantele, alongside unscripted storytelling and original poetry, often in a spoken word form. Their mythological research is analyzed with contemporary frameworks like quantum physics and metaphysics to better understand the science behind the power of oral storytelling traditions.

Founder of the Bardic Arts Revival movement, The Bard is currently executing cross-cultural research for a major 2027 theatrical premiere with support from Finlandia Foundation National, Nordic Northwest, and the Portland Finnish School.