Hi everyone!
I hope all is well where you are and that your local weather is cooperating with you. January 2024 has been a busy month for me behind the scenes with music work, keeping active with a snow shovel around home (over 46 cm of wet snow around our house that has since melted away over a week ago) and performing for audiences of all ages from Oslo to Bergen and north to Skei along the Norwegian west coast, in addition to serving as a Lutheran Church organist on Sundays as usual. There was one choir concert I conducted with the Alvidt Manger Singers as a part of a series of New Years concerts organized by the Hordaland Chapter of the Norwegian Choral Federation last weekend, but for three evenings this week, I have been on tour with two established Norwegian fiddlers who perform as a duo, have taught our daughters in fiddle and folk music workshops over the past two years and with whom I had accompanied in concert for the first time. The fiddle tour is the focus of this next article for my Facebook pages and www.trentbruner.com.
KVIVEN DUO
The Kviven Duo is made up of Jorun Marie Kvernberg and Britt Pernille Førholm. Both perform on hardanger fiddle and standard fiddle. They have performed as a duo since 2018 and have two albums to their credit as a duo. This week has been where I accompanied them in concert as they released their second album, “Nordøystes døtre” (Daughters of the Northern Lights). Their first album, “Kvakksalvar-Guri”, was released in 2020. The fiddle repertoire on both albums comes from their home regions of Nordfjord and Sunnmøre.
Jorun Marie Kvernberg (jorunkvernberg.com) holds a B.Mus. degree in hardanger fiddle performance and B.Ed. degree from the Norwegian Conservatory of Music in Oslo. She has experience as a private fiddle teacher, solo and group performer, composer, collector of traditional fiddle tunes and folk music workshop leader. She has recorded and performed with Norwegian traditional folk music groups such as Majorstuen, Tindra, Unni Bokassa Ensemble, Trio Alde, NyNorsk Brass Quintet, one duo act with accordionist Øyvind Sandum, another duo with Rune Tylden and Perleskum. She has also released one book of fiddle tunes she learned from her grandfather’s tune collection, assembled by Peter L. Rypdal. She has performed with Majorstuen twice in Canada; once in Montreal for a folk music festival and at Celtic Colours on Cape Breton Island.
When Norway’s national folk music organization, “FolkOrg” and Oslo based “Riksscenen” organized an old time dance music project in 2021-22 under the name “Folk Sessions Gammaldans,” our daughter, Hannah Moira, was selected to be a part of this special project with four dance bands formed through this national project. Jorun Marie became one of the band mentors throughout this period, and was part of the mentor group who helped lead the aspiring musicians in competition at Norway’s national old time dance music competition, Landsfestivalen. As I wrote in an early August 2022 article, I was drafted into the mass band at the last minute as the pianist. This is where I performed with Hannah Moira, the other recruits and all the mentors, Jorun Marie included.
Britt Pernille Førholm (froholm.com) is a fiddler who has a number of solo album releases to her credit and releases with various Norwegian traditional folk music groups since 2000. She holds a Bachelor of Folk Music Performance from the Ole Bull Academy and a Masters of Music degree in traditional arts from Telemark University College. She has performed internationally and holds a number of solo albums to her credit, as well as being a performer of newly commissioned music works. She is active as a collector of traditional Norwegian fiddle tunes, a fiddle tune composer and a host for encouraging contemporary composers to create new works for the hardanger fiddle.
I met Britt for the first time in May 2011 at Riksscenen in Oslo while on a Norwegian concert tour with Patti and Alex Kusturok. We were impressed with her knowledge of some Canadian fiddle tunes as we jammed with her and other fiddlers after our May 2011 concert. She has also done some backup fiddle for Norwegian country music acts on occasion throughout the Canadian Prairies. At present, she is employed as a district teacher/musician for a group of municipalities in the Førde region of Norway along the Norwegian west coast, north of Bergen.
Our stages were in small venues for each of the three performances I shared with them, but all of the audiences were warm towards us and were very knowledgeable about Norwegian folk music and music in general. It was a pleasure to play for audiences who had not only critical eyes and ears, but were very supportive of our efforts. I look forward to future performances with Kviven Duo should the opportunities arise.
The next article will come as musical developments dictate. Until next time, see you somewhere down the musical trail!
Musically Yours, Trent
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