Trent Bruner

In my organist position with the Norwegian Lutheran Church, I worked often with former Pastor Helle Maria Wolstad, assistants Gerd Karin Njaastad, Kristoffer Foldøy and Bjørn Tore Hendriksen (the support group) with the music confirmation group over the 2018-2019 school year, which took 14 and 15 year old school students who were confirmation candidates that had musical talent and were taking music and dance lessons through the Osterøy Culture School. In the end, we had 13 candidates from all over Osterøy who were actively involved in two major church presentations, both held in Hosanger Lutheran Church and well received by all in attendance.

The first presentation was a Christmas production with the support group, the music confirmation group and the Fotlandsvåg Brass Band December 14th, with a Christmas presentation by Swiss Composer Paul Burkhard titled “The Loveliest Night.” This was translated from German to Norwegian by Pastor Wolstad’s grandfather, who was a missionary in Africa and he had also translated this musical into a local African language. It became my task to take the Norwegian translation of the adapted arrangements and create musical arrangements around them that the group could play with the talents they had. Between pianists, singers, percussionists, dancers and the Fotlandsvåg Brass Band, we were able to make a quality presentation that covered The Christmas Story from the Book of Luke Chapter Two.

The second presentation was an Easter Monday presentation titled “Påske I ord og toner” (Easter in Scripture and Song) that was held on Easter Monday, April 22nd.  The same confirmation music group along with Cantor Baard Eikkas and the Osterøy Community Choir (Osterøykoret) presented The Easter Story from the Four Gospels from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, from Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem to The Last Supper, The Night in Gethsemane, The Crucifixion and The Resurrection. There were 177 people in attendance for the second annual Easter presentation.

After the Easter presentation, a highlight for our family was that our 15 year old daughter Hannah Moira Midtbø-Bruner was confirmed on May 5th, 2019 at Hamre Lutheran Church. My mother, Gerda Bruner, came from Saskatchewan to Norway for the celebration as was of tremendous help for all of us in the preparations. The Hamre Local Church Board also invited Hannah to play at her confirmation service. 31 candidates were confirmed that Sunday morning. Hannah was in the second service and accepted the invitation to play on violin while I accompanied her on piano. We played a Sven Nyhus composition titled “Bergrosa” (The Mountain Rose) for a packed church of over 280 people before the pastor’s sermon. Her playing was well received by all present. With a surprise appearance by some of her friends from the Bergen Junior Fiddlers at the family celebration after the service at our home, a musical weekend honouring a milestone in a teenager’s life was made complete.

Another highlight for us in church life was appearing on Day 215 of the Fiddle Tune Video Library on Facebook: The 365 Days of Fiddlers. For this to happen, the Hamre Lutheran Church is raising money to purchase a new piano. We had a test piano from a Bergen piano shop placed in the church for a test run for one service, one wedding and one concert. The fundraising concert happened on Thursday, July 25th where I played piano and sang some songs by myself and with the audience. Our daughters, Hannah Moira and Ingrid Sofie, brought hardanger fiddles and standard fiddles to play in this concert as well.

The girls learned a tune from my July 2019 music book release titled “All of Mine-Volume 1,” a collection of 60 original fiddle tunes, available at www.trentbruner.com. I composed a two step called “Marthe and Anders’ Wedding” for Marthe Kristine Østerud Bjerke, a former pastor on the Island of Osterøy and Anders Primstad who got married on August 3rd, 2019. Marthe served the Osterøy and Arna districts from August 2018-March 2019 before she and her husband accepted church postings in Stavanger and will be active in their congregations as well as their married life together. The video of the two step was recorded during this fundraising concert for posting on Facebook. The link is as follows:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/179483679364853/?multi_permalinks=396373481009204&comment_id=401479237165295&notif_id=1564767967177971&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic

The next article will feature my times at the 22nd annual John Arcand Fiddle Fest 2019 from August 8-10, 2019. Check the earlier video links I have with other fiddlers playing tunes from this three day event on my Facebook artist page. Until next time, see you somewhere down the fiddle trail!

Musically yours, Trent