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July 19-22, 2018
Folklore Village, Dodgeville, Wisconsin
Features the traditional music and dance of the Hardangerfjord region of Norway
The HFAA's Annual Workshop offers a very special opportunity for getting to know Norwegian Hardanger fiddle music and dance traditions in depth. We are dedicated to both nurturing beginners and providing challenges for the more advanced. We invite you to come and join us in an environment that has been called "the warmest and most supportive in North America."
The HFAA was proud to present, for the first time in the US, the outstanding dance and music traditions of the Hardangerfjord area of Norway. Additionally, we were extremely proud to present for the first time at HFAA the preeminent hardingfele master Knut Hamre, renowned both in Norway and abroad for his concerts and recordings and highly esteemed for his teaching. Accompanying him were two of the most important teachers of the Hardangerfjord dance tradition, Per Øyvind Tveiten and Brit Sørland.
The region around Hardangerfjord, located on Norway’s west coast southeast of Bergen, is said to be the birthplace of the Hardanger fiddle and lent its name to the instrument. This region may possibly have the longest continuous tradition of hardingfele playing. The "Jaastad Fiddle", a hardingfele crafted by Ole Jensen Jaastad of Ullensvang in Hardanger, is dated 1651 (although this date is disputed). The father-son team of Isak and Trond Botnen from Kvam in Hardanger made reportedly over a thousand hardingfeler, in what could have been one of the earliest examples of mass production of musical instruments, during the late 1600’s and throughout the 1700’s. This availability of good instruments caused the hardingfele tradition of Hardangerfjord to flourish.
In addition to our Norwegian staff, our experienced staff of North American hardingfele teachers--Vidar Skrede, Andrea Een, Loretta Kelley, and Laura Thompson--presented the traditions from various hardingfele areas of Norway at the beginner and intermediate levels. We also offered beginner mentoring led by Eden Ehm for those who have not played hardingfele before, or who need extra help. As always we also offered one-hour classes in Norwegian traditional singing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, that year taught by Arna Rennan of Duluth, a Norwegian-American who spent many years in Norway and who has a deep grounding in its vocal traditions.
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