A demonstration of music and dance featuring the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle will be presented Monday, February 15, at 12:00 noon in Bede Ballroom at the University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC). The performance is free and open to the public.

The program begins with a Hardanger fiddle concert by Olav Jorgan Hegge, known as a tradition bearer from the district of Valdres, Norway. A champion dancer along with his wife Mary, he will dance the Valdresspringar accompanied by Hardanger fiddler Karen Torkelson Solgaard of Minneapolis. The concert is followed by a demonstration.

This music and demonstration are intended to create an immersion experience to broaden the public’s awareness and understanding of Norwegian music and dance. These Norwegian dances are enjoyable to watch, but even more fun to do.

Karen Torkelson Solgaard is the daughter of Glen and Lucile Torkelson of Crookston. She became interested in the folk culture of the Hardanger fiddle out of curiosity over the unusual old fiddle in the family which was brought by her great-grandparents to their North Dakota homestead in the 1880s.

With funding from the Jerome Foundation, Solgaard took a study trip to Vinje, Telemark, Norway, in August 1998 to study with the local master Hardanger fiddler (and distant relative) Tarjei Romtveit. She also has a Folk Arts Apprenticeship grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board to study Hardanger fiddle with Dr. Andrea Een, violin and Hardanger fiddle professor at St. Olaf College in Northfield. She has also studied with Hegge for three winters while he visits family in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Even though she grew up in a Scandinavian-American family on a farm near Crookston, Minnesota, her musical training began in classical music and pursued a career in cello for ten years. As Karen delves more deeply into the music of the Hardanger fiddle, she recognizes that it is a lifetime work to master the instrument, a vast music and cultural tradition. She is vice president of the Hardanger Fiddle Association of America and was editor of the organization’s journal, Sound Post, from 1988-1991. She is chairperson of the Twin Cities Hardingfelelag and is a musician with Det Norske Folkedanslaget in Minneapolis.

Also participating in the program will be Olav Jo/rgen and Mary Sanford Hegge. Mary and Olav dance Valdresspringar regularly and perform occasionally for tourists and other groups as members of the O/ystre Slidre spel- og dansarlag inValdres. They have also taught Valdresspringar with two women for the spel- og dansarlag. In this country they have taught several classes in Minneapolis and have conducted weekend dance workshops in Chicago; St. Louis; San Jose, Redwood City, and Alta, California; and Folklore Village in Wisconsin.

The Hardanger fiddle is considered Norway’s national instrument. Instead of a scroll as on a violin, a lion’s head sits atop the peg box. The instrument is decorated with black ink flowers and mother-of-pearl inlay. It has eight strings, four of which are strung under the fingerboard and cannot be touched by the bow; the understrings resonate as the top four are played.

Disability accommodations available upon request. Please call 218-281-8505

Background information:

Olav grew up in a family of fiddlers, dancers, and langeleik players in the Valdres area in Norway, and he is a recognized master at the Hardanger fiddle (hardingfele) and the dance style from the area. As a teenager Olav played the accordion and had a popular dance band. When he went to Oslo as a young engineering student, he began to study hardingfele with the master fiddler from Valdres, Torleiv Bolstad, and has played for more than 35 years.

Olav has been a music and dance judge at the local and regional competitions, has judged the national hardingfele competition, and was chairman of the Landskappleik (Norway’s national competition in traditional music and dance) in 1992. In 1994, he was featured along with another fiddler in a Norwegian television program on folk music and nature. He received the Valdres newspaper’s culture prize for 1995; was a featured fiddler in the Norwegian radio’s folk music hour in 1995; and has made other radio appearances. He is one of six artists featured on a recording of Valdres dance music released in late 1995.

He was a recipient of the 1996 Saga Prize (Saga-prisen), given by Saga Petroleum ASA in conjunction with the Norsk Folkemusikk- og Danselag, naming him as a master teacher for a young musician. University of Oslo appointed Olav to teach hardingfele. He has taught his traditional music to many other fiddlersÑNorwegian and AmericanÑand he is also sought out as a dance fiddler. Hehas taught Valdresspringar in Norway at a camp geared toward Americans, and his Valdresspringar dance with two women won the B class in the national folk dance competition in 1978.

He spends a few months every year in St. Paul and in 1996 formed the Twin CitiesHardingfelelag (Hardanger fiddle club) to encourage and promote the playing of traditional Norwegian Hardanger fiddle music. He has a strong interest in Norwegian-America and has contact with many relatives in Minnesota.