Hardanger
Fiddle Teachers
Hauk Buen is a Norwegian national treasure. During his long career
as a fiddler he has won innumerable competitions, prizes and awards,
culminating in the award in 2003 of the King's Medal of Honor in
gold from King Harald and Queen Sonja in recognition of his outstanding
contributions to Norwegian folk music. He has performed throughout
Europe and the U.S.; some highlights were concerts with the Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra in Jerusalem, at the National Museum of
Natural History in Washington, D.C., and at the 1994 Winter Olympics
in Lillehammer, Norway. Hauk's dance fiddling is prized as highly
as his concert playing; when Hauk opens his fiddle case at a dance,
people are already on their feet before he has finished tightening
his bow. Hauk is also a master hardingfele maker whose instruments
have been used by national championship winners and he will be
bringing instruments that students may wish to consider for purchase.

Kenneth
de Gala, who grew up in Kongsberg (Buskerud
county), started playing hardingfele at the age of ten, studying
first with Anne
Svånaug Haugan and later chiefly with Øystein Ellefsen
and Hauk Buen. He specializes in the traditions of both Telemark
and Numedal. Acclaimed for his dance music, Kenneth has twice been
awarded the prize for best dance fiddling at the Landskappleik,
Norway's national folk music and dance competition. He is also
an excellent dancer. Now living and working in Oslo where he plays
for weekly dances, Kenneth regularly travels back to Jondalen to
play for the Småjondølene dance group and to Kongsberg
to play with the Kongsberg Spelemannslag and teach his numerous
young students. Kenneth has been invited to the U.S. many times,
performing at Høstfest and playing and teaching at workshops
in Nebraska, New England and New York.

Andrea Een acquired her expertise on the Hardanger
fiddle from master fiddlers in Voss, Telemark, and Setesdal. She
is a music
professor at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, teaching
Hardanger fiddle, violin, and viola. In May 2002, Een received
the Saint Olav Medal from King Harald of Norway and the Norwegian
government in recognition of her services in the promotion of wider
knowledge of Norwegian culture. Her solo CD, From the Valley,
combines her original fiddle solos with traditional dances and
tone poems from West Norway. A second CD, Winter Dreams,
is due out soon. Een was a featured soloist with the Minnesota
Orchestra in December 2008, playing the final movement of Peter
Hamlin's Hardanger Concerto.

Rachel Nesvig graduated from St. Olaf College
in 2007 with Honors in Music. She was the first St. Olaf student
to give a Distinction
Recital in Hardanger fiddle. Rachel started playing violin at the
age of 8; before college she played violin with the Gig Harbor
(WA) Spelemannslag. She discovered the Hardanger fiddle at a master
class given by Karin Code. At St. Olaf she studied with Andrea
Een and Karen Solgård and attended master classes given by
Annbjørg Lien and Arne Anderdal. She spent half her junior
year in Norway, studying classical and jazz violin at the Music
Conservatory of the University of Stavanger, playing Hardanger
fiddle with the Vibå Spelemannslag and taking private lessons
from Dag Hovde. Rachel is currently working for her master's in
Violin Performance and her K-12 teaching certificate at Central
Washington University.
Dance Teachers
Olav
Sem, from Heddal in Telemark, learned to dance “in
tradition” as a child. He has been a sought-after teacher
in Norway for most of his life, and during the past 20 years has
also earned high respect in America for his masterful presentation
of Telemark dance at numerous camps and workshops. Olav has a wide
repertoire of traditional vocal material from the Telemark kveding tradition that includes bygdeviser and stev, as well as slåttestev,
which he sings for dancing. He has been a competitor and a judge
in both dance and singing at local kappleiks and at the Landskappleik.
An inspiring teacher and charismatic entertainer, Olav shares a
lifetime of stories and experience with his classes.
Seljefløyte (Willow Flute)
Toby
Weinberg, founder and leader of the Boston Spelemannslag,
is well known in the U.S. as an accomplished performer on hardingfele
and as a skilled and patient teacher. Toby has taught hardingfele
and seljefløyte at several HFAA workshops.
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