HARDINGFELE
OLAV LUKSENGÅRD MJELVA began playing
violin at the age of 7, learning the local traditions of his native Røros. He
spent part of his childhood in Hallingdal and when, as a student at Ole Bull Academy
in Voss. he had the opportunity to select a second instrument, Hardanger fiddle
and the Hallingdal tradition were a natural choice. As he says in the booklet
of his solo CD, Fele / Hardingfele, Røros / Hallingdal, “Røros and Hallingdal are many miles apart and
traditional music and fiddling in these two areas are dissimilar in many ways.
Fiddlers in Hallingdal use the Hardanger fiddle, while Røros fiddlers use the
normal violin. But there are some similarities. Playing technique in the Røros
tradition involves bowing two strings at a time and using double-stops, as does
playing on the Hardanger fiddle. And fiddling in both Røros and Hallingdal is
energetic and characterized by a rhythmic drive.” Olav’s hardingfele playing
has received a very warm welcome from fiddlers and dancers in Hallingdal. Olav makes
a living as a freelance musician: he works as a session musician in studios,
plays in a number of groups, teaches at workshops and plays for dances. His CD
has just won a Spellemannprisen
award (Norway's equivalent of the Grammys).
VILDE
AASLID, a lifelong violinist, took up
the hardingfele in 2007 and has since committed herself to the study of the
music and dance of Norway. Vilde studies with Loretta Kelley and has attended
workshops taught by Hauk Buen and Arngunn Timenes Bell. Her focus is the Telemark
and Vestland traditions. Vilde has taught violin performance, music
history, and music theory for over a decade. She holds BA and MA degrees
in music history from the University of Washington and has studied violin
performance at The Boston Conservatory. She is currently pursuing a PhD in
musicology at the University of Virginia.
LORETTA
KELLEY has been performing, teaching
and writing about the Hardanger fiddle for more than 20 years. She has appeared
on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion and American Radio Company, and National Public Radio's All Things Considered and Performance Today. She is a regular teacher at the Nordic Fiddles and
Feet Scandinavian music and dance camp and at the Annual Workshops of the
Hardanger Fiddle Association of America, as well as at innumerable local
workshops throughout the US. She has made over 20 study trips to Norway and has
placed highly in many fiddle competitions there. Her playing has been featured
in an hour-long radio program on Norwegian radio.
KAREN
TORKELSON SOLGÅRD began playing the
old family hardingfele in the 1970s and has been active in HFAA ever since. A
frequent instructor at HFAA annual workshops since 1997, she has also served as
fiddle teaching coordinator. Karen studied Vestland style with Dr. Andrea Een,
Valdres tradition with Olav Jørgen Hegge, and Telemark tradition with several
masters, including Tarjei Romtveit, Alf Tveit, Hauk Buen, and Vidar Lande.
Karen performs around the U.S. and gives workshops for fiddlers and school children.
She also is a regular dance fiddler at Scandinavian dances in the Twin Cities.
DANCE
ULF-ARNE
JOHANNESSEN and INGUNN STRÆTE LIE, from
Ål in Hallingdal, won the King’s Cup and hardingfele couple-dance competition
at the Landskappleik in 2009 for
their Hallingspringar, and Ulf-Arne won the competition for laus (halling) dance. Ulf-Arne has been touring the world
with the FRIKAR dance team and 2009 Eurovision Song Contest winner Alexander
Rybak and in other dance and drama programs. He is a fine player of the two-row
button accordion. Ingunn, who has just completed her Masters degree in folk
music at the Norwegian Academy of Music, is a much-acclaimed virtuoso on the
two-row and regular accordion, and a respected teacher at local dance and music
programs. She works as an organizer of the annual folk music festival, Den
Norske Folkemusikkveka, held in Ål.
KVEDING (TRADITIONAL NORWEGIAN SINGING) HEGE RAVDAL, whose Norwegian home is in Morgedal, Telemark, has been deeply involved with Norwegian traditional singing for some time. She has studied with Olav Sem, Aasmund Nordstoga, and Jon Anders Halvorsen both in the US and in Norway. This will be the 5th time Hege has taught kveding at the HFAA Annual Workshop; she has also taught at Nordic Fiddles & Feet Camp. Hege has written about Norwegian vocal folk music for the HFAA’s Sound Post.
DANCE CLASS FIDDLERS
Dance class fiddler KARIN LOBERG CODE, who now teaches strings in Kalamazoo, Michigan, lived in Oslo for two years, studying with master fiddlers and playing for Hallinglaget (the Hallingdal dance group in Oslo) and other dance classes. She performed at the annual Folkemusikkveka in Ål in Hallingdal in 1999, 2000 and 2002. Among the numerous hallingspringar dance workshops in the USA which Karin has played for are HFAA, Scandia Camp Mendocino, and Nordic Fiddles & Feet, where, in 2002, she was the last-minute replacement for NFF's fiddler from Norway.
Dance class fiddler REBECCA LOFFT HAUGO’s family heritage
of musicians and dancers in Norway led her from Southern California to
Hallingdal. She now lives in Torpo, where she learns from the living
master-musicians of the area and is often requested for
local dances. She teaches Norwegian to adult immigrants, fiddle to
children through Ål Cultural School, plays with Hallingdal Låtelaget, and takes part in local and national hardingfele
competitions. Rebecca received her
M.A. from Telemark University College, Rauland in 2008; her Master's thesis
compared the musical styles
of the springars of Hallingdal and Valdres as played on hardingfele.
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