For Nordic and Baltic communities in the United States and Canada, Pride Month is not only about parades in distant capitals. It is a timely invitation to ask whether the heritage halls, language schools, choirs, camps, churches, museums, and cultural centers that preserve identity are also making room for LGBTQ+ people who have always been part of them.

At EANC’s latest In Focus forum, on May 18th, Ambassador Kristjan Prikk offered Estonian Americans a wide-ranging assessment of Ukraine, NATO, drone defense, transatlantic relations, and Estonia’s place in a changing world — but his final message was deeply personal: tell Estonia’s story, and do not let others tell it for you.

Kotkajärve Metsaülikool returns this August for a week-long gathering in Muskoka, Canada, offering a unique blend of cultural exploration, language immersion, and community connection. With engaging lectures, workshops, and activities in both Estonian and English, the program welcomes participants of all backgrounds to reconnect with heritage, nature, and one another in a warm, supportive environment.

From Rita Ray and NOËP to Kuressaare Theatre, regional food culture, and a journalism conference, this spring’s Estonian Cultural Days will once again turn Manhattan into a meeting point between Estonia and North America.

The Northern Voices is celebrating a milestone that once felt like a distant dream: our one-year anniversary as the premier digital platform for Nordic and Baltic culture in North America. Launched in mid-2024 with a bold mission to give Nordic and Baltic creatives “a louder voice in the American cultural landscape, one story at a time”, we have since grown into a thriving community with over 13,000 active users in our first year.

Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium resounded with a proud moment in Estonian music history on October 23, 2025. In a sold-out concert that marked the Estonian Festival Orchestra’s North American debut, conductor Paavo Järvi led his ensemble in an all–Arvo Pärt program – a high-profile tribute to the beloved Estonian composer’s 90th birthday. Learn more about the composer, listen to the live recording and get first impressions below.

On September 11, 2025, Estonia’s most celebrated composer, Arvo Pärt, marked his 90th birthday amid tributes spanning the globe. It’s a milestone for a musician whose journey led from a small Baltic town to the pantheon of contemporary classical music. Born in 1935 in the central Estonian town of Paide and raised in Rakvere, Pärt came of age under Soviet rule and first made his mark experimenting with avant-garde techniques.

Cathy Lawrence vividly remembers the unlikely spark that led her down a new creative path. It happened on a Match.com date. As a longtime cantor and voice teacher on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Lawrence had spent her career guiding others in song and spirit. Writing a musical was never on her agenda—until that fateful evening.

The landscapes of the Nordic and Baltic regions are undergoing dramatic transformations under the pressure of climate change. In Iceland, for example, volcanic activity long shaped a restless terrain – but now global warming is accelerating changes in even more profound ways. “Nature’s creativity has meant that the Icelandic language must also be nimble,” writes Andri Snær Magnason, an Icelandic author, in a recent New York Times guest essay about his homeland.

Estonia’s Foreign Ministry has announced that the European Union is already working on a new (19th) package of sanctions against Russia, underscoring the bloc’s determination to keep increasing pressure over the war in Ukraine. Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna stressed that the EU will not stop at “halfway measures” – every new sanctions round reinforces the message that “Ukraine is not alone, and Russia will not go unpunished.”