Skånska Dagbladet April 9, 2015. By Yvonne Erlandsson. Translated from the original Swedish.
Do you remember Katie Malik, the opera singer and accountant from Gig Harbour Washington who was in SVT Allt för Sverige last winter? This summer, the 34-year-old with Skåne roots comes back to Sweden to celebrate midsummer with family. And then she makes a number of concerts in Sweden.
Allt för Sverige continues to make an impression in Katie Malik’s life. In recent months, she has been invited to a number of Swedish-American associations to share her experiences in the program and she also met relatives in the US that she had not met before.
Katie Malik went right up to the thrilling finale in the program when only two remained, but it was John Olson with roots in Dalsland who took home the price, to meet the family. The opera singer has also got in touch with her family and traveled back to celebrate Swedish Christmas in a special program that followed up Allt för Sverige. Even then Katie Malik told us that she planned to come back, give concerts and climb Kebnekaise. And now the pieces begin to fall into place.
Katie Malik will celebrate midsommar in Sweden with her husband, her parents and other US relatives in a reunion with the Swedish family. On June 18, she gives a concert for the family of St. Johannes Church in Malmö at lunchtime.
“The event is free and open to the public, so all Swedes want to hear me live are welcome,” writes Katie Malik in her newsletter.
She also reveals that she has been invited to Lund Cathedral to sing at morning devotions on 28 June.
“…An incredible honor,” writes Katie Malik, and says that her ancestor Ellen Olson told their children and grandchildren in the United States about the beautiful cathedral in Lund and the clock where the little figures came out when it struck.
Ellen is Katie Malik’s grandfathers grandmother, who as Elna Persdotter stepped aboard the boat to America in the port of Malmö in 1886.
More concerts in Sweden are in the pipeline. At home in the US Katie Malik is currently in Tacoma Opera’s production of Gounod’s Romeo & Juliet, where she has an ensemble role. April 10 is the premiere.
