THE NEWS FROM BRUNER’S BROOD NEW YEARS EDITION - THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2026

Hello, everyone! As I write this article from Norway on a quiet, snowy New Year’s morning, I trust all is well with you and that you were able to bring in 2026 in a pleasant manner to your liking. Our adult aged daughters were out with friends for New Years’ Eve while my wife and I had a restful, quiet time at home to bring the New Year in. For those who have recently liked and followed my artist page since my last posting in October 2025, thank you very much for your interest and kind support, as I again warmly welcome all the new followers who have come onboard. Please share this page with others, tell those you know that this page and website exists, and let them know that activities and events are lining up for fall and winter 2025. Here’s the latest for my Facebook pages and www.trentbruner.com.  When 2025 comes to mind for me, this has been a year of catching up, finishing up and receiving the rewards of patience, both personally and professionally. Regarding our family, our house now has 99.9% of the renovations and repairs done that were waiting for years to be done, just in time for Christmas. This has included better insulation, streamlined power assignments a new bathroom downstairs, improved lighting throughout the house, rodent security outside the house, new siding and insulation, new windows replaced, consistent flooring and standardized walls in the basement level in most of the rooms, and better air circulation in our main living room. Now it’s time to get everything put backin place…(Help!) In the meantime, my wife has decided to focus on plans she would like to see achieved for the third phase after the bank accounts get rebuilt: More electrical upgrades, a kitchenette renovation and an upgraded garage as a part of our property, all of which I fully support and discuss with her! Patience brings its rewards… As for Hannah Moira and Ingrid Sofie, Hannah is continuing in second year studies in folk music performance at the Norwegian Conservatory of Music in Oslo, as well as taking some freelance work as a soloist, a part of an old time dance music duo with accordionist Ivar Haugen, and some Norwegian fiddle teaching at weekend seminars throughout Norway, for which we are delighted and thankful for. As for Ingrid, she is in her final year of music specialization at Langhaugen High School in nearby Bergen, which means that she has only one semester left of Grade 13, which is mandatory in Norway for advancing to higher education. We’ll see how Ingrid’s future unfolds after her grade school education is finished in June. In my music work, I completed composing for the release of two new country gospel music books in hard copy and PDF in August 2025: Life Lessons #3 and Life Lessons #4. All the songs composed here are mine alone, with some songs connected to personal life events and the remaining songs connected to my work as an organist with the Norwegian Lutheran Church. The fall semester has also focused on further music planning to help the music ministry of the Osterøy Lutheran Parish go further with church programming, cultural facilitating and mission work. Composing has also continued on a number of fiddle tunes from my various memories of events, travels and people that will go into the future release of two new fiddle books whenever I get to the number of tunes I feel comfortable releasing. One of those tunes in the upcoming releases is a co-composition with Ottawa fiddler Randy “The Fiddlin’ Fireman” Foster called “Bratwurst in Berlin,” which Randy taught at the North American Fiddlers Convention in Edmonton, Alberta, organized by Calvin Vollrath and his wife Rhea Labrie. When Randy and I were in Berlin, Germany for a world music expo with Calvin and Rhea in October 2000, Randy and I went on a Sunday tour of Berlin, went to the suburb of Potsdam, where their Olympic Stadium is located and when we found a food stand, it was the best bratwurst we had ever tasted! This tune took from 2006-2024 to write, with Randy making the second part while I had the first part in waiting. This afternoon snack before supper deserved a tune, and like our house renovations, patience paid its rewards! When I was not doing church work or composing, choir concerts between Knarvik, Dale (in the Vaksdal Municipality), Bergen and the Tysnes region were keeping my conducting schedule a busy one through the fall. Substitute music teaching for culture schools on the Island of Fedje and the Alver Municipality were another part of a fall semester that helped to pay for the earlier mentioned house renovations, which were not cheap by any means. I was also invited as a special guest accompanist for one November concert at Bergen’s “Columbi Egg”, the local folk music concert organization with Gabriel Fliflet, Jorun Marie Kvenberg and Olav Tveitane, which was a delight to perform. But when you can help others become the best they can be, it is always a privilege to do, no matter how you are asked or invited to do so. Winter 2026 will have me perform three concerts with Nordhordland musikkteater (North Hordland Music Theatre) as an accompanist in early February, right when the Winter Olympics begin in Italy. I will also have choir concerts to conduct with various groups until June as well as some arranging of country songs for the Unneland Community Choir for their fall countryfest October 1-2, 2026, and some more substitute music teaching along the way. Performance dates for these and other appearances will be posted on the performance calendar soon, so please check back for further updates for the 2026 calendar year as they become available.Until next time, our family wishes you and yours the best in 2026. See you somewhere down the musical trail! Now it’s time to shovel snow… Musically Yours, Trent