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.

Dance: "Numedalsspringar then and now: A dive into the archives" with Nils Øyvind Bergset. What did this dance look and feel like a century ago?

Dance: "The 3-beat hardingfele music and dance traditions in Norway." Follow along with the knowledgeable and vivacious Vegar Vårdal in this prerecorded session as he explains, plays and dances the rhythms of many of Norway’s bygdedans and music traditions. People were enthused when Vegar made this video for our 2021 online summer festival, and we are delighted that he has given us permission to show it again during this year's Open Hearth.

Special Session: "Hardanger fiddle tunes on the regular fiddle" with Åsmund Arneson Farstad. In this workshop we will do exactly that: play Hardanger fiddle tunes on the normal violin. The tunes are from Sunnmøre/Nordfjord in western Norway, 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.

Special Session: "What’s up: The folk dance and music scene in Norway." A small panel including Kjellbjørn Karsrud (editor of Folkemusikk magazine) and HFAA members will discuss the folk music and dance wave that’s sweeping Norway and take questions from the audience.

Get to Know Your Hardanger Fiddle. In this informal Q&A session luthier Lynn Berg 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 a staff member while participants follow along on mute.

"Lightning Round". A tradition at the HFAA's workshops, a "lightning round" is a session where fiddlers or other instrumentalists/vocalists sign up to perform one tune each in quick succession. This allows players to practice their performance skills in a low-stakes, supportive environment.

Dance Party! American Hardanger fiddle groups play for your dancing pleasure. Program TBA.

"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

Alexander Aga Røynstrand (Intermediate/Advanced hardingfele), born in 1990 in Granvin in Hardanger, is one of the foremost Hardanger fiddle players in Norway. He began playing fiddle at age 7 and started competing when he was 12. In 2010 he won Øivind Bergh's memorial prize for young fiddlers. In 2019 and 2022 he won the elite A class for Hardanger fiddle at the Landskappleik (Norwegian national championship); in 2019 he also won the prestigious King’s Trophy. In 2024 Alexander’s CD “Heimom” won the Folkelarm prize for Solo Album of the Year. The album "Spelarhola" with Knut Hamre, Åse Teigland and Alexander Røynstrand won the same Folkelarm prize in 2014. Alexander’s musical expression is based on the traditional hardingfele repertoire from the Hardanger region, with Knut Hamre and Anders Kjerland as his foremost ideals. Over many years as a performer, he has developed personal interpretations and thoughts about what he wants to convey through his music. His ambitions are to work as a solo performer and to pass on the tradition to the next generations. He also aims to introduce folk music to as many people as possible. Alexander is often sought-after as a teacher and inspirer in courses for children and young people; he has worked as a teacher of hardingfele in Hardanger. In his day job, Alexander is a truck driver for logging operations.

Here are examples of Alexander playing: 

"SPELAR-GURO" - ALEXANDER OLAVSON RØYNSTRAND - FIDDLE TUTORIAL - TALIK VIDEO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4fNnR-wWQg

"SPRINGAR ETTER HALTE-LARS" - ALEXANDER OLAVSON RØYNSTRAND - FIDDLE TUTORIAL - TALIK VIDEO

https://youtu.be/1-qYns_fvV4

Vilde Aaslid (Beginning/Intermediate hardingfele) is an active fiddler who specializes in various Western Norway hardingfele areas. She is especially fond of dance fiddling and plays in all the major springar traditions. Vilde makes regular fiddle study trips to Norway and is an avid dancer. She has been Vice President of the HFAA since 2020. In the 2024-2025 academic year, she is living in Oslo while on sabbatical and is fiddling and dancing more than ever. She has taught hardingfele and been dance class fiddler at several HFAA workshops and looks forward to sharing tunes at Open Hearth! 

Åsmund Arnesen Farstad ("Hardingfele tunes for regular fiddle") is an A-class fiddler on both regular and Hardanger fiddle. He has roots in the fiddle traditions of Sunnmøre and Nordfjord but plays many fiddle styles from around Norway and different music genres. Åsmund is often used as a traditional solo fiddler, dance musician, and teacher. He has also played in different groups and projects–as a soloist with orchestras as well as a member of the folk rock-trio Kjeltring, among others. He is currently studying at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.

Hear Åsmund playing Hardanger fiddle:

https://youtu.be/db87xgU8jNQ

https://youtu.be/Nf8822TYGEs

Hear Åsmund playing regular fiddle:

https://youtu.be/oAs5Nwil8Bk

https://youtu.be/jwVnzigflk8

https://open.spotify.com/track/5ZEqrOOZeceTWmxgtIQhlu?si=83ae274268d74d84

Vegar Vårdal ("The 3-beat hardingfele music and dance traditions") 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 of Norway and the 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 also awarded the Hilmar Alexandersen Music Prize for his work.

Nils Øyvind Bergset ("Numedalsspringar then and now")  is an accordionist and dancer who has primarily immersed himself in the traditions of Numedal and Jostedal. He studied folk music at Telemark University College and folk dance at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Besides performing as a soloist, he has had many joint projects with groups such as Fløytfeledraget, Røllaget, Nils Øyvinds, Hått, Bærum spellemannslag and Numedal spel- og dansarlag. Nils has been a dance instructor in Numedalslaget in Oslo since the 1990s and at several other courses and seminars.  He has been a judge for both dance and music in local and national competitions and has been active in organizational work within folk music for a very long time. Watch Nils Øyvind and Marit Måge dancing Numedalsspringar to Bård-Vegard Bjørhusdal’s playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R07dSRFMGvg

Kjellbjørn Karsrud (“What’s up?: The folk dance and music scene in Norway”) from Valdres, is a fiddler, author and lecturer who is passionate about folk music and folk dance. He studied folk music at the University of Telemark (today USN), has general teacher training and a Masters degree in Norwegian didactics from the University of Sør-Trøndelag, and history from the University of Southeast Norway (USN). Kjellbjørn has been a lecturer in history and Norwegian language at North Gudbrandsdal Vidaregande skule. His extensive knowledge of the folk scene in Norway led him to be named in August 2024 as the new editor of the Norwegian Folkemusikk magazine and the online website, folkemusikk.no.

Lynn Berg ("Get to Know your Hardanger Fiddle") has been making and repairing Hardanger fiddles since 1991. He has won three medals for his fiddles at the biennial instrument building competition at the Landskappleik (Norwegian national folk music and dance competition). In 2010 Lynn made available to the HFAA a 1/2-size hardingfele that he had built, with the thought that it could be loaned out to young fiddle students. In response, the HFAA created the Young Student Hardingfele Loan program, which inspired Lynn to subsequently over the years build six 3/4-size instruments to expand this program. For many years he was the caretaker of all the instruments in the HFAA’s fiddle loan programs, packing, shipping and repairing the instruments.