Our Presenters

Hardanger Fiddle Groups, featured in our Saturday night dance party!

Our Schedule (all times US Central)

All sessions will be held on Zoom (https://zoom.us)

Our Program

Our teachers and Zoom administrators are knowledgeable about the Zoom teaching environment, and they work closely together to ensure the best possible learning experience. 

Hardingfele Classes with Vegar Vårdal (int/adv) and Loretta Kelley (beg/int). All registrants will be provided in advance with videos of the teachers performing the tunes they will teach. This enables students to become familiar with the tunes and the teachers' way of playing them before attempting to learn the intricate details of traditional Hardanger fiddle playing during the online session.

Special Session: Play, Dance, Sing! with Sigrid Kjetilsdotter Jore and Maija Lindaas. A dive into the living tradition of Norwegian folk culture in all its aspects! Details TBA.

Special Session: "Hardanger fiddle tunes on the regular fiddle" with Gard Nergaard. This workshop will feature Hardanger fiddle tunes played on the normal violin, tunes from the area on the “border” where the two fiddle traditions meet. This will be a great opportunity for those who don't have a Hardanger fiddle yet but still would like to explore the music for the Norwegian national instrument. The tunes will be in ADAE tuning (almost like usual, but with the lowest string tuned one whole step up, to A). If you only have a Hardanger fiddle, you can tune down to play along using A=440 as the tuning pitch for your kvart or A-string. This is also a good chance for dancers and musicians on other instruments to learn more about Norwegian folk music traditions.

Dance and Music from Two Traditions. Arnhild Brennesvik and her dance partner, Eivind Bakken, grew up in Jondalen, a small valley in Eastern Telemark that’s near the city of Kongsberg in the valley of Numedal. From childhood they danced in Småjondølane, a group founded by Arnhild’s mom, dancer Karen Brennesvik. In that group they learned and performed the dances of Telemark and Numedal.  Fiddler Kenneth de Gala grew up in Kongsberg and learned to play the hardingfele from master fiddlers in both Numedal and Telemark. In this interactive session the team will demonstrate dances and music from both areas and talk about what it was like growing up deeply involved with these two traditions.

Lunch With a Luthier. In this informal Q&A session, expert hardingfele luthier Ottar Kåsa from Bø in Norway will respond to your questions about the instrument, strings, repairs, etc.

Hardanger Fiddle info session. Learn about our Loaner Fiddle programs, upcoming Hardanger Fiddle and dance workshops in the US and abroad, music and dance scholarships, and more from HFAA members and volunteers.

Samspel Session. Samspel ("group playing") is a foundational skill that we always teach at our workshops. Fiddlers will be provided in advance with the sheet music for the tunes to be performed, selected from the HFAA's "Samspel Tune Book" and ranging through different levels of difficulty. The session will be led by HFAA members Tyler Hendrickson and Gus Holley while participants follow along on mute.

"Lightning Round", hosted by Eden Ehm. A tradition at the HFAA's workshops, a "lightning round" is a social sharing session where fiddlers or other instrumentalists/vocalists sign up to perform one tune each in quick succession from anywhere (not necessarily Norwegian). This allows players to practice their performance skills in a low-stakes, supportive environment.

Dance Party! Hardanger fiddle groups from around the world play for your dancing pleasure, interspersed with solo dance tunes. Program TBA. Organize your own Watch Party at home with friends! 

"Afterglow" with Karin Løberg Code. Join us to play music together, wrap up this year's Open Hearth, and look ahead to exciting things to come!

All sessions will be held on Zoom (https://zoom.us/).

More Information about our Presenters

Vegar Vårdal (Intermediate/Advanced Hardingfele) is a musician, dancer and composer with more than 25 years of performing and teaching experience. Vegar lives in Vågå in Gudbrandsdal but has the whole world as his place of work. He plays both regular and Hardanger fiddle and studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Vegar is characterized as an energetic, playful and versatile musician - and moves across a wide range of genres. In 2020 he was named “Folk Musician of the Year” and was awarded the Hilmar Alexandersen Music Prize for his work.

Loretta Kelley (Beginner/Intermediate Hardingfele)  has been performing on, teaching and writing about the Hardanger fiddle for more than 30 years. Nominated for a Grammy award in 2007, she has made appearances on Prairie Home Companion and taught extensively at Scandinavian folk dance and music camps throughout the US. Her very-frequent travels to Norway keep her in touch with the music scene there, including attending fiddle and dance competitions and playing for dances.

Gard Nergaard (Hardingfele Tunes for Regular Fiddle)  is a fiddler and multi-instrumentalist, teacher, dancer and storyteller from Mandalen, the southernmost valley of Norway. From a very young age he has been known as an inspired ambassador for the unique repertoire from his home tradition in Vest-Agder. His solo debut album «Seint Var Det Om Kvelden» presented the fiddle tradition from this area in its entirety for the first time. Gard has studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and is currently doing his Master in Traditional Arts and Folk Music at the University of South-Eastern Norway while working extensively as a solo artist and in ensembles such as duo Alvina & Gard and Kalejdoskop Trio.

Maija Lindaas (Play, Dance, Sing!) is a folk musician, singer, and dancer who currently works as a music teacher in Setesdal, a remote valley in Norway. Her job and passion is spreading the joy of folk music and dance to young and old in rural Norway, mainly through Hardanger fiddle, harp, mouthharp, dance workshops and stev, a particular sung poetry style unique to Setesdal. She looks forward to sharing her approach to interdisciplinary folk culture with you!

Sigrid Kjetilsdotter Jore (Play, Dance, Sing!) is a Norwegian traditional singer, dancer and instrumentalist from Valle in the valley of Setesdal, Norway, educated at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Sigrid has competed in local and national competitions in Norwegian folk music since the age of five. Sigrid loves "The Folk Music Experience" - people sharing great traditional music and dance together.  She has taught dancing and singing to people of all ages and skill levels since she was a teenager and,  in 2011, founded a folklore dance group called Sæbyggjan ("people from Setesdal”) which now has over 40 active members.

Arnhild Brennesvik & Eivind Bakken (Dance and Music from Two Traditions) have been dancing the traditional dances of Telemark and Numedal since childhood. They have won the Landskappleik (annual national competition) three times dancing numedalsgangar; they have also won second and third place several times and Eivind has won the Kings Cup in the Halling dance competition.  Arnhild is well-known for her teaching of the dances of Telemark and Numedal in Norway and the US and at festivals around Europe; she taught Numedalsgangar at the HFAA Summer Workshop in 2024. In everyday life Arnhild is a school nurse; Eivind is an electrician.

Kenneth de Gala (Dance and Music from Two Traditions), from Kongsberg, began studying hardingfele at the age of 8. He grew up learning Numedal and Telemark tunes from master fiddlers in both areas. He has won prizes as “outstanding dance fiddler” at both local competitions and the Landskappleik. He is also a sought-after instructor for children and adults. Kenneth has taught and performed in the US numerous times – most recently at the HFAA Summer Workshop in 2024. In everyday life Kenneth is an Urban and Regional Planner.

Ottar Kåsa (Lunch With a Luthier) is a renowned Norwegian Hardanger fiddle player and instrument maker. He has won several national contests as a fiddleplayer, including the prestigious Landskappleiken 4 times, and is known for his masterful interpretation of traditional tunes as well as his skill in crafting Hardanger fiddles by hand. Ottar Kåsa has released 2 solo albums and collaborated with many prominent musicians, helping to promote and preserve Norway’s rich cultural heritage both at home and internationally. In later years he has built 4 Hardanger violas and 3 Hardanger cellos, in addition to the making of traditional Hardanger fiddles. In 2025 Kronos quartet played in Carnegie hall with one of Kåsas quartets, in a world premiere with music by Kristine Tjøgersen and Benedicte Maurseth. Ottar is today running his business in Bø in Telemark, a place with a great history of both fiddlers, dancers and makers of Hardanger fiddles.

Eden Ehm (Lightning Round MC)'s passion for Norwegian folk music ignited in childhood while playing flatfele gammaldans for a Scandinavian youth dance group.  She began hardingfele studies over 15 years ago at St. Olaf College and has served the HFAA in many capacities for 10 years.  Eden was honored as a folk music tradition keeper in the Vesterheim Museum's Hand Me Down The Fiddle exhibit, and in 2025, she deepened her craft by studying in Norway at Norway's Rauland International Hardingfele Intensive.  Drawing from traditional hardingfele and flatfele repertoire across Norway's diverse sub-traditions, Eden's musical expression illuminates the connections between regional styles and traces folk influences in classical music.  Through regular performances at Scandinavian, historical, and classical festivals and events, she preserves and shares this unique instrument and its music while inspiring broader appreciation for ethnomusicological traditions worldwide.

Tyler Hendrickson (samspel) began his nordic fiddling journey in 2017 at a workshop with Vidar Skrede.  He has since been active with the Decorah Nordic Jam, and has helped to establish the Lower Iowa Nordic Ensemble based in Iowa City.  He is currently teaching two hardingfele students in addition to his roles as Assistant Adjunct Professor of Viola and the University of Northern Iowa, Instructor of Violin & Viola and Kirkwood Community College, and a private teaching studio in Iowa City.  

Gus Holley (samspel) has fiddled with the Fargo Spelemannslag since 2016, helping to revitalize and promote hardanger fiddle playing and building in Minnesota and North Dakota. He studied Norwegian folk music at the University of South-Eastern Norway in Rauland in 2018, and has also been involved with the Bay Area Hardingfelelag since 2020. He is currently pursuing a PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Berkeley. Gus has taught hardingfele lessons since 2023. His repertoire comes mostly from Telemark and Agder. 

Karin Loberg Code (Afterglow) is a violin and viola teacher/performer in Kalamazoo. She has studied the Hardanger fiddle for over twenty years and lived in Norway for three years, performing for various dance groups and concerts in Oslo. Also while living in Norway she was a member of several spelemannslags and competed in folk music competitions or kappleiks. In the US, Karin has been on the teaching staff at Nordic Fiddles and Feet, Scandia Camp Mendocino, Springdans Northwest and the HFAA annual workshops. She focuses her efforts on the music and dance of Valdres and Hallingdal, but has also studied styles from other districts in Norway. She gives private and group lessons both in-person and via videoconference.