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Nordanstig's Fiddlers American journey
Travelling members of the Spelmanslag:
Introduction and details
All names:
O'tôrgs-Kaisa Abrahamsson
Mats Andersson
Staffan Berg ¨
Hans Ederborg
Lennart Eriksson
Eva Gustafsson
Evelina Henning
Helena Högström
Dag Swedman
Rose-Marie Klintman
Leif Woxlin
- E-mail addresses to all travelling members, divided by ";"
Group mail A
- E-mail addresses to all travelling members, divided by ","
Group mail B
O'tôrgs-Kaisa Abrahamsson
E-mail address: kaisa@tyfonmail.se
Hi!
Ny name is O'tôrgs-Kaisa Abrahamsson. I'm a folk musician and since 15 years I'm the musical leader of Nordanstigs spelmanslag.
I've been playing the violin since I was a child and I have studied folk music for 3 years.
I have a wonderful and enthusiastic group of folk musicians in Nordanstigs spelmanslag. Together we maintain and preserve our musical heritage from the north part of our province Hälsingland.
I'm really looking forward coming to you in the swedish-american districts and to meet your folk musicians. I know that many of you are interested in swedish folk tunes and that you have a swedish tradition among your own musicians.
25 years ago I was in the USA travelling with a folk dance group. We started our journey in Minneapolis / Sant Paul and we visited several states. We covered 500 swedish miles (=5000 km) during 1 month and we had shows and performances nearly every each day. It was really a fantastic experience.
Maybe I meet someone on this trip who I remember, or who remembers me. I can't say any names any longer; we only stayed for 1-2 days on each place so we didn't had the chance to learn to know each other. My strongest memories are from Rapid City and Mount Rushmore, and New York.
I would appreciate if I during this trip could stay with no smoking people. I could mention I'm a vegetarian, but I hope it wouldn't be any problem. I would prefer to share my accommodation with Eva Gustafsson; my playmate.
Thank you so much for your hospitality! I'm looking forward to this amusing and pleasant trip.
Notice: If anyone is interested I could have a day class in folk music from Hälsingland (our province in Sweden). I often serve as a course leader and the participants are everything from beginners to more experienced musicians.
Best regards
O'tôrgs-Kaisa Abrahamsson
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Mats Andersson
E-mail address: mats@energibanken.se
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No data so far.
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Staffan Berg
E-mail address: staffan@harte.nu
I am a 52 years old civil engineer. I work at the paperboard mill Iggesund Paperboard, for the moment as a research engineer.
The job has given me the opportunity to visit the US several times, I have been In North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, California, Arizona, Wisconsin…… but not in Minnesota (except two hours at the airport of Minneapolis.) The problem is that the time goes to see pulp & paper mills so I have not seen so much of the country and the people.
I have played the violin since I was 9 years old. My father gave me the violin from my late grandfather. I am still playing the same violin.
The first years, I practised in the public music school but I soon started to play folk music together with my father on the accordion and with the local musicians in hälsingland by our summerhouse. One of the first I played with was Lennart Eriksson who is with us on the trip.
Some years later, 30 years ago, I wanted to learn more about the harmonies. My father had an old diatonic accordion, I trained day and night in the beginning. Now I am playing single row diatonic acc mostly to our dance music beside the violin.
I live in a small fisherman village by the Baltic sea, called Hårte. I like fishing and travelling with my old boat, I also like to hunt with my camera. You can se some of that on my own homepage photos and text (in Swedish)
www.harte.nu
I have two children, a boy, Niklas, 25 and a girl, Sofia, 23. The young lady has an old lady-horse named Bon Amie or Bonnie who also is a part of the family, just as the cat Nemesis.
My own lady, Anne lives in Stockholm, 200 US miles from here so I am travelling a lot.
As you maybe understand out from this, I have no allergic problems and I eat almost everything. I am not smoking and normally not talking in my sleep!(?)
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Hans Ederborg
E-mail address: hans.ederborg@spray.se
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Hans plays both chromatic harmonica and fiddle in the group. He first began to play the chromatic harmonica when his father gave him one at 8 years old. At the age of 19 he also began to play the fiddle, this was due to an interest in learning to read sheet music.
At the age of 20 Hans ceased playing the chromatic harmonica to concentrate on the fiddle, but returned to playing the harmonica 30 years later.
Within the group Hans mostly plays the fiddle, only occasionally playing the chromatic harmonica during performances.
The main musical influence in what Hans plays is the folk music from the northern part of Hälsingland, although he does have some interest in Jazz music of the type played by Toots Thielemans.
Harmonica players of particular interest to Hans are Toots Thielemans, Brendan Power and Charlie McCoy.
Hans is a teacher in industrial automation at Bromangymnasiet school in Hudiksvall, teaching student of ages 16–19.
Hans has been to the USA several times and visited New York, Chicago, Washington, Baltimore, Phoenix, San Diego, LA, San Francisco, Mohave desert, Gran Canyon and Hawaii.
Hans is 53 years young and married to Siv, they have two children Stefan (born 1987) and Jenny (born 1990). They are situated in an old but very nice house in the country side.
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Lennart Eriksson
E-mail address: birgit.lennart@swipnet.se
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I's born in 1935, and through my mother, who was a cantor in the Swedish Church, I
was in my younger days tought to play the piano and to play from music sheets.
During the 40ths I was captivated by the American Jazz music och often I made
improvisations based on only the harmonies. I played the clarinet and Benny Goodman
was my idol. I also tried to play the tenor saxophone.
I's always interested in the classical music so I also started to play the oboe.
The music has always been my hobby, but during my schools days I was even more
fascinated in physics and mathematics. So I become a school teacher in those
subject fields.
When I's married in 1960, I took over the violin from my wife. She used to be in in
a musical group, but when she quit, her violin was only hanging on the wall.
Then I of course wanted to learn to play the violin, which I still want to do! I
soon discovered that also the Scandinavian folk music is based on improvisations,
so it was certainly an alternate to the Jazz music. When I play folk music I mostly
make improvisations and accompany the other musicians.
Some years ago I was injured in a finger on my right hand, so it's no longer
possible for me to play any wind instruments, but the violin works fine and also I
still can make some mess on the piano.
Best regards,
from the Smess estate in the Å village (Å = small river)
Lennart Eriksson
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Eva Gustafsson
E-mail address: soren@sorenahker.com
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I got interested i folk music in the early 70¨s. At first I learnt to dance and a couple of years later I began to play the violin.
I was born in Stockholm and moved to Hälsingland in 1980, at the age of 26. One of the first things I did was to join Nordanstigs spelmanslag, something that I have never regretted.
I am now 54 years old and live in Ilsbo, a village with 600 inhabitants situated between Bergsjö and Hudiksvall. I´m a teacher and work in Ilsbo, too. I live together with Sören Åhker who builds nyckelharpas for a living. He is well-known to nyckelharpa players in America, too. He's been to the USA and Minneapolis a couple of times but I have never been there so I'm really looking forward to this trip. We have some friends and acquaintances in America, for instance Rita Leydon in Lahaska and Wes Peterson and Judy Kjenstad in Minneapolis.
I am allergic to dogs, cats, horses, perfume and tobacco-smoke.
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Evelina Henning
E-mail address: evelina_henning@hotmail.com
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No data so far.
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Helena Högström
E-mail address: helenahog@hotmail.com
- I'm 36 years of old.
- I's grown up in Bergsjö, Hälsingland.
- Today I'm living on my family farm at Orrsjön, Gnarp (Black Grouse Lake, Gnarp).
- I'm a school teacher and a land owner.
- I've played the violin since I's 14 years of old.
I started with violin classes, held by Kaisa, our musical leader of Nordanstigs spelmanslag.
- I've studied folk music at the Folk High Schools in Malung and Forsa, both violin and traditional folk song.
- I'm allergic to bee and wasp stings.
- I eat almost everything.
- I'm a non smoker.
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Dag Swedman
E-mail address: No data so far
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Rose-Marie Klintman and Leif Woxlin
E-mail addresses:
Rose-Marie: rose-marie@rmk.nu
Leif: leif@bergsjo.nu
Married couple; both playing the fiddle.
Non smokers.
Rose-Marie works as a fulltime artist (painter). Please visit her web-site: www.rmk.nu
Rose-Marie is allergic to dogs, and to nuts and also raw eggs in food.
(But except from that Rose-Marie and Leif eat and drink everything.)
Leif works with logistics at Expancel: www.expancel.com
Except from fiddle music Leif is interested in american artists like Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Alison Krauss, Willie Nelson etc.
Rose-Marie and Leif have been in USA before, to visit relatives in Ramona, South Dakota, and Seattle, Washington.
Leif has also been on business trips to Atlanta, Ga.
Rose-Marie and Leif have 2 sons: Alexander (born 1983) and Jon-Olov (born 1987).
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