2007 Workshop Staff

Monika is from Osterøy, near Bergen, and has Vestland tradition as her hardingfele “mother-tongue”. After moving to Valle in Setesdal in 1999, she learned Setesdal playing as a member of Knut Heddis Minne spelemannslag, a group which has frequently won the hardingfele group-playing competition at Landskappleik. Monika taught in the folk music program at the Valle secondary school until that program was recently discontinued; she is currently a lecturer at the Setesdal Museum in Rysstad, Setesdal. She is a Class A fiddler. 

Karin Løberg Code, a life-long string player, began intense study of the hardingfele in 1990. Today, Karin is a respected dance fiddler who has lived two years in Norway, playing for weekly dance groups in Oslo and meeting regularly with master fiddlers. As an American fiddler, she has been on staff, along with Norwegian-born artists, at numerous festivals and workshops in the US. She focuses her style of fiddling on the tunes of the Hallingdal and Valdres valleys. Karin teaches violin and viola at several schools and a private studio at her home in Kalamazoo, Michigan. 

Sarah Nagell studied hardingfele and voice at St. Olaf College, the New England Conservatory of Music, and Høgskolen i Telemark in Rauland, Norway. While in Norway, she fiddled with Falkeriset Spelemannslag and performed with the lag and in solo performances at folk festivals and other events. Her group, Gjetord, was recently invited by the Japanese Grieg Committee to give concerts of traditional Norwegian folk music in Tokyo and Osaka as a jump-start to the 2007 Grieg anniversary year.

Karen Solgård performs throughout North America, gives workshops in schools, and teaches Hardanger fiddle tunes to orchestra students, fiddlers, and classical violinists. Her CDs, Norse Fiddle at Home and Norse Fiddle at the Wedding, and the accompanying music books, help to make this music feel more local for American audiences. Her main dialect is Telemark, with some work in Valdres and Vestland styles; as a Scandinavian-American she is also steeped in gammeldans. Karen is Hardingfele Instruction Coordinator this year.

Torleiv Løyland, who lives in Valle in Setesdal, started dancing when he was 15 years old. He learned by watching others around him dance. He became a Class A dancer, and won the Landskappleik in Lillehammer in 1977. He has taught dance for over 20 years, including 15 years at Ole Bull Akademiet in Voss. Torleiv has researched dances with Norwegian dance scholar Egil Bakka, and has served on the board of a number of Norwegian folk dance organizations. In addition to teaching Setesdal gangar at the 2007 HFAA Workshop, Torleiv will teach munnharpe. 

Marit Løyland, a graduate of the folk music and dance program at Valle videregående skole (secondary school), will assist her father in presenting Setesdal dance and munnharpe traditions.

Bruce got his first lesson in Valdres springar in 1989 while sitting a wheelchair and wearing a patch over one eye, recovering from a car accident. Over the next decade, standing up, he tried the dance in workshops taught by Rolf and Magny Karlberg, Olav Jørgen Hegge, and Erik Røine. Since he’s “finally felt good about the dance”, Bruce has taught Valdres springar at AmeriKappleik and Folklore Village, and in Washington DC, New York, and the Bay Area. By profession, Bruce is a guitar teacher, player and author. 

Mary Hegge was introduced to Norwegian bygdedans by Bruce Emery in 1986. She began dancing Valdres springar in 1989 and has been dancing it every chance she can get ever since. Mary has lived part time in Valdres since 1993. She has taught springar at numerous workshops in the US, Sweden and Norway, both with her late husband, Olav Jørgen Hegge, and with others. Mary became a Class A dancer in 1999, and was a dance judge at Jørn Hilme-stemnet in 2001. She dances and plays langeleik with the Øystre Slidre Spel- og Dansarlag in Valdres.

Sarah Nagell (see also under Hardingfele). At Rauland, Sarah studied traditional Norwegian singing with an emphasis on the music of Telemark.

Hege Ravdal, originally from Morgedal in Telemark, has been deeply involved with Norwegian traditional singing for some time. Her article, “Stev og slått: On the relationship between vocal and instrumental folk music,” appeared in the HFAA’s Sound Post, vol. 23, no. 3 (Summer 2006). Hege has taught kveding at the HFAA Workshop for the past two years. 

Carol Sersland started learning Telespringar at the age of 9 from her father, Harold K. Sersland, a talented dancer who came from Hjartdal in Telemark. She began singing while attending the Folk High School in Rauland in the 70s, and later returned to Norway to study with Anne Gravir Klykken. Carol sang for many years with the groups Skandilous and Stev Sisters; she currently performs solo and with others in Minnesota. In addition to teaching kveding at the 2007 Workshop, Carol is Dance Instruction Coordinator.