2014 Workshop Staff

LEIF RYGG (Advanced hardingfele) from Voss, is famous throughout Norway as one of the most accomplished virtuosos of the Hardanger fiddle today. He has won the Norwegian National Competition three times, as well as innumerable other competitions, and is in high demand as a concert player. He is also highly valued for his experience teaching hardingfele at the Ole Bull Academy in Voss and elsewhere in Norway; the HFAA was honored to have him teach hardingfele at our Annual Workshop in 1998 and at AmeriKappleik in 2003. Leif has made several recordings, including a solo CD, Lengt, and Bjølleslåtten.

KARIN LØBERG CODE (Intermediate hardingfele), a life-long string player, began intense study of the hardingfele in 1990. A respected dance fiddler who has spent years in Norway, Karin is in Oslo this winter and spring, playing for weekly dance groups and meeting with master fiddlers. As an American fiddler, she has been on staff at numerous festivals and workshops in the US. Karin plays tunes from all over Norway, but focuses on Hallingdal/Valdres. At home in Kalamazoo, Michigan, she has a studio of violin and viola students, directs four youth orchestras, teaches string methods and viola at Kalamazoo College and finds time to play viola in various regional orchestras.    

SARAH NAGELL (Intermediate hardingfele), from Tempe, Arizona, lives in Bondal in Telemark, Norway where she teaches music at the Hjartdal kulturskule. Sarah started playing hardingfele while studying with Dr. Andrea Een at St. Olaf College and has played hardingfele in the Lars Skjervheim Spelemannslag, the Boston Spelemannslag, and Falkeriset Folkemusikklag. She received a Master's degree in Contemporary Improvisation (voice and fiddle) at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and a Master’s degree in Traditional Arts (voice and Hardanger fiddle) from Telemark University College in Rauland, Norway. In addition to teaching hardingfele at this workshop, Sarah will also teach kveding (Norwegian traditional singing).

CHELSEA SPANGLER (Beginning hardingfele) learned to play hardingfele at Fana Folkehøgskule, located near Bergen, Norway. She studied with Telemark fiddler Annika Westgård, a student of Leif Neset and Annbjørg Lien. Chelsea holds a BA in music from Wartburg College, and an MA in ethnomusicology from UC-Berkeley, where she specialized in Norwegian folk and popular musics. She has a passion for teaching, and has over a decade of experience with both lessons and classroom teaching. Since 2007, she has had opportunities to perform and teach hardingfele in Norway, Sweden and the US.    

LEIKNY AASEN and VIDAR UNDERSETH are not only prize-winning dancers but also performers on the hardingfele and regular fiddle. Vidar was born in Solund, an island community in outer Sognefjord. He has won the Landskappleik three times dancing the parhalling, for which he won the Kongepokal (King’s Trophy) in 1989. A full-time musician/dancer, he is one of the most sought-after dance teachers in Western Norway. Vidar and Leikny have placed in the upper ranks of Class A dance at the Landskappleik with the springar from Solund. Both have had years of teaching experience in music and dance. In the U.S. they have taught in Minneapolis, San Francisco and at Folklore Village. They were warmly received at HFAA annual workshops in 2000 and 2008. In addition to the springar from Solund and the rull from their area, they will present reinlender, springpolka, masurka, skotsk, pariserpolka, and other couple dances from Sognefjord and Nordfjord.

KVEDING (Traditional Norwegian Singing)

SARAH NAGELL, who has studied, performed and competed in kveding in Norway, will share her knowledge of traditional Norwegian singing again this year. Read about Sarah in the section on hardingfele teachers above.