Our Presenters

International 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: 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.

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

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", l 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! 

"Till next time" with Karin Løberg Code. Join us to 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. He 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.