Duluth-stämman 2025

Kristian Bugge was born in 1979 in Næstved, Denmark. His family lived in Sweden for two years and then settled in Vejle in Eastern Jutland, Denmark. He attended a Rudolf Steiner School where, when asked in the fifth grade which instrument he would like, he chose the violin. Soon the two of them were inseparable. His mother, Lise, found a local music school offering ensemble playing for young people and that was where Kristian at the age of 13 first met traditional music. He was fascinated by the catchy tunes, the close connection between music and dancing, and the spontaneous joy of playing among other young musicians – an experience which was to decide the direction of his musical career. He experienced music as a means of communication unhindered by national or cultural borders while traveling through Europe with the youth ensemble Fandango. After graduating from school in 1998, Kristian studied for five months at Raduga Art College in Moscow where he was taught by Mikhail Tsinman, the first violinist of the Bolshoi Theatre. In the spring of 2000, he went to study at the Malung Folk High School, Sweden. Here he received six months of lessons in traditional dance from Ami Petterson followed by fiddle classes with the distinguished Swedish fiddler Kalle Almlöf. It was an inspiring year which again confirmed his love of traditional music. He spent the Spring of 2001 in beautiful Stockholm, Sweden and later that year he was admitted to the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in Odense, Denmark as a major in folk music. Through his master’s degree from the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music, he specialized in the unique regional styles from many corners of Denmark, at a level that very few of his generation can match or master today. He has continued this work also after his official studies ended and is today one of the most award-winning folk artists in Denmark.

In 2004 Kristian Bugge became the first musician ever to receive the Radium Award, awarded by the Danish Radio’s P2. Since then he has received no less than 10 Danish Music Awards (Danish Grammys) both as a soloist and with his groups. To mention a few ”Danish Folk Artist of the Year” in both 2011 and 2016 and latest the “Tradition Award” with Gangspil at the Danish Music Awards 2024. Now Kristian Bugge is very active on the Danish and Scandinavian folk music scene, as well as in the rest of Europe and North America, both as a musician and teacher. He has specialized in the strong Danish folk music traditions, and is recognized for his work with groups like Baltic Crossing and Habadekuk. He’s also playing in: Wenzell & Bugge with classical percussionist Ronni Kot Wenzell Jensen & Bugge with the accordion player Mette Kathrine Jensen. Gangspil, Danish traditional duo with Sonnich Lydom (Accordions, harmonicas and vocals). More info, many links and latest news on the following websites:

www.kristianbugge.com
www.habadekuk.dk
www.trad.dk www.jensen-bugge.dk
[email protected]

Bill Peterson has been interested in folk music of all kinds since the early 1970s. He is co-founder of the Sioux River Folk Festival in Canton, South Dakota. The festival started in 1980 and is still going strong. Bill received a grant in 2001 from the South Dakota Arts Council to study fiddle with Dwight Lamb and has been studying, playing and traveling with him since then. Bill and Dwight have a company called Missouri Valley Music and have recently released a tune book of Danish dance tunes brought to Iowa in 1893 by Dwight’s grandfather, Chris Jerup. Bill currently performs on fiddle and guitar with the Sergeant Creek Stringband and the Sioux Falls Ceili Band.

Ann Streufert and Beth Hoven Rotto have been arranging and playing their favorite Scandinavian tunes on twin fiddles for over 30 years. They feel that making music with each other is truly “playing.” They have performed at Nisswa-Stamman many times and have worked on numerous music projects together. Since 2008, they have led the Burning Bright Fiddlers, an ensemble of all ages who offer a medley of Scandinavian tunes at an annual holiday benefit concert.

The Lilla spelmanslag is a youth fiddle/cello folkmusic group made up of young musicians ages 8 through 18. We learn traditional Swedish folkmusic, for example walzes, schottis, and polskas. We welcome new members. In 2022 we traveled to Sweden to connect with three youth folk music groups in three different parts of Sweden and attended a folk music festival and a fiddle camp. We learn by ear with the help of rehearsals and on-line recordings.

Feleboks is Mia Burgstede on two row accordion and Jim Bannon on hardingfele and fiddle. They play tunes old and new from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and beyond. Both Mia and Jim are dancers as well as musicians and strive to play music that they themselves would love to dance to. Feleboks hopes to find the places where traditions overlap and explore the interplay of the drone of the Fele and the pulse of the Boks.

Minneapolis-based Nordic folk quartet, Fyra, showcases works connected to women musicians like Finland’s Maria Helena Spoof, Sweden’s Ida Gustafsson, and Norway’s Ingunn Bjørgo. Fyra was created by Renee Vaughan (nyckelharpa), the ensemble includes Renee, Sarah Pradt (Hardanger fiddle) Erin Walsh (cello) and Laura MacKenzie (wooden flutes, säckpipa).

Hütenänny was formed in 2007 by a group of friends that play regularly in the Northern Roots Session in Northfield, Minnesota. Always looking to the North for their inspiration, Hütenänny primarily plays old-time dance music from the Nordic countries, but might also throw in a tune from the British Isles, the Shetlands, Canada or the American Midwest. A typical Hütenänny set includes waltzes, polkas, schottisches, hambos, polskas, and marches. Since several of our members are also singers, you might hear a folk song or sea shanty thrown in for good measure!

People in the Duluth area will recognize the name John Agacki, the smooth-voiced troubadour who brings sea chanties and Celtic ballads, as well as original music to Duluth area venues and music festivals. In fact, his original music won first prize in a Garrison Keillor talent contest that led to his music being used for Keillor’s Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day events. He’s currently under contract writing music for TV and film. His Finnish heritage led him to become the founding editor of the Työmies’ Finnish American Reporter. He’s been a regular at the Julebyen Scandinavian Christmas Festival in Knife River. John will be performing some Finnish songs and Scandinavian-inspired instrumentals accompanied by his 12-string guitar and button box accordion.

Back at the dawn of this millennium, back in the year MMI, a dozen members of the Duluth-based Finnish-American choir, the Järvenpää Singers (The Head of the Lake Singers), got together to form a new group called Kanteleen Soittajat (The Kantele Players). The kantele, the national instrument of Finland, comes in many sizes, from 5 strings up to 36 strings or more. A small kantele (like the ones that we play) is also known as "a Finnish lap harp." Our group's size had remained pretty constant for many years at 12 to 15 players, but now, post-Covid, only a half dozen players remain. Although we are amateur players, we find great enjoyment in sharing our Finnish heritage. We sing and play songs from the Kalevala and the Kanteletar as well as folk songs, school songs, dance songs, patriotic songs, humorous songs, religious songs, etc.

Loretta Kelley is the foremost American performer on the hardingfele (the traditional Hardanger fiddle), an intricately decorated fiddle native to Norway with sympathetic strings, a nearly flat bridge, and a 300-year unbroken aural tradition. Loretta specializes in slått music, dance tunes rooted in the 18th century with sometimes unique asymmetrical rhythms, modal scales with “floating” intervals, and haunting tonalities.

Lauluaika, Finnish for “Song Time”, is a group of musicians who share a passion for singing and playing Finnish folk tunes for audiences who enjoy listening or dancing. Their repertoire includes Finnish couples dances such as waltzes, polkas, humppa, jenkka, mazurkka, and hambo, as well as lively group dances for all ages to enjoy. Lauluaika musicians play a variety of instruments including mandolin, two row button accordion, violin, guitar, bass, octave mandolin, harmonium, jouhikko, kantele, nyckelharpa, and percussive instruments such as tambourine, and pimpparauta.

Vidar Skrede and Patrik Ahlberg join their Scandinavian fiddle forces together in this Norwegian-Swedish folk music duo. The variety of strings includes fiddles, Hardanger fiddles, guitars, and even a mandolin. The mix of tunes is put together by both their original and traditional Nordic fiddle tunes.

Laura has learned from many tradition bearers on both sides of the Atlantic, and has herself been recognized as a Master Folk Artist (Minnesota State Arts Board). She has been lauded as a “Celtic music wizard” by the Minneapolis Star Tribune and a “High priestess of Celtic music” by Minnesota Public Radio.

Ole Olsson’s Oldtime Orkestra (usually referred to as O.O.O.O.) is a fun loving group of musicians who first met at the Good Templar Hall in Minneapolis, Minnesota playing for Scandinavian dances in times gone by. Nowadays, they still play some pretty darn good Scandinavian music for oldtime dancing and/or just plain enjoying. They play fiddles, accordions, pump organ and guitar, and sing some funny Scandinavian vaudeville songs that may occasionally make Lutheran ladies smile. They play for festivals and lutefisk feeds all around Minnesota and even make it out of the state once in awhile in their old yalopy to perform in far flung places. They have traveled from New York City to Thousand Oaks, California; from Minot, N.D. to Swedesburg, Ia., all in their quest to spread the joy of Scandinavian folk music and perhaps find the perfectly formed piece of lefse.

Paul Dahlin is a Swedish-American fiddler from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was heir to a rich tradition of music from the Swedish province of Dalarna. His maternal grandfather is Ivares Edvin Jonsson. His uncle is Bruce Johnson. By the time he was 17, Paul was performing regularly with his elders at Swedish American events. As he mastered the idiom, he moved into the lead role while playing with his grandfather, who had Americanized his name to Edwin Johnson, and Uncle Bruce. The three fiddlers called their group the American Swedish Spelmans (“folk instrumentalist”) Trio. Dahlin began teaching Swedish instrumental music at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. In 1985 he developed his class into the ASI Spelmanslag (“fiddlers’ team”). When the group performed in 1989 at Sweden’s largest folk music festival, Musick vid Siljan, Dahlin was hailed by his Swedish colleagues as an important keeper of a deep musical tradition that includes wedding tunes and dance melodies that are more direct and less ornamented than some strains of contemporary Swedish fiddling. His original composition “Danielpojkens Polska” was selected from 40 entries as the most outstanding composition in its genre at Sweden’s Dalarnas Hemygdsrings competition. The tune is in the traditional polska form. Not to be confused with the polka, it is the “oldest dance rhythm in Sweden” and is considered by some scholars as a predecessor of the triple-meter waltz.

Ponyfolk was founded in 2014 by Clifton Nesseth and Paul Sauey. Rooting their sound in a mutual appreciation of folk, rock, and orchestral music, the pair’s multi-instrumentalist abilities and vocal harmonies have carved them out a reputation of creating maximalist soundscapes that are defined by droning layers of guitars, strings, and synth textures – undergirding emotionally evocative lyrical imagery. Ponyfolk builds musical bridges at the intersection of old time Nordic music, Americana, and modern rock, performing in a variety of styles and ensemble configurations. They are often joined by Lewis Franti (percussion), Alex Nelson (pump organ), and Mikey Marget (cello).

Two guys with accordions playing tunes, singing songs and even telling a few jokes. Art’s Norwegian ancestors played for dances all over North Dakota and Minnesota and Ross’s focused more on church music. For the past few years they have been playing together combining their repertoires from their families and adding a lot of new music they’ve collected along the way. Expect almost anything to happen.

Back by popular demand, Arnie Arneson leads this crowd-favorite youth group through a musical journey of traditions. Part chamber-orchestra, part dance band, part comedy troupe, you’ll find yourself mesmerized by these talented youth. For many years, Arnie has been a huge inspiration for countless students, and his work to keep traditional and orchestral music accessible in and around the Brainerd area has been deeply inspiring. Don’t miss this group when they perform at the festival!

Ross Sutter is best known as a singer of Scandinavian, Scottish, and Irish songs, and for his wide repertoire of American traditional and popular songs. He accompanies himself on guitar, dulcimer, button accordion, and bodhran. He has performed at countless venues throughout the region and beyond, from concert halls to libraries and schools, from senior centers to international festivals. For some years now, Ross has served as the MC and leader of dancers around the majstång at Swedish midsommar celebrations, including New York City’s in Battery Park. Bart Sutter is the author of ten books, and the only writer to win the Minnesota Book Award in three different categories. He has read his poems in venues that range from Pittsburgh’s International Poetry Forum to The World of Accordions Museum, from the American Swedish Institute to Braham Pie Day. Bart has had four verse plays produced, including Cow Calls in Dalarna, the premiere of which was sponsored by the Swedish Cultural Society of Duluth. When Ross and Bart perform as a pair, their work has the kind of counterpoint and easy intimacy unique to sibling acts.

Tim Reese has played fiddle for contra dances for 30 years starting at Duluths very own Wild Thyme dance. He fell in love with the Nyckelharpa while touring Sweden with the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers and has slowly been learning to play with keys ever since.

Tjärnblöm plays traditional Nordic tunes, new arrangements on old tunes, and original tunes in Nordic style. With their unique instrumentation and carefully rehearsed work, “TJ” likes to surprise audiences with variety– from tugging on listeners’ heartstrings, to prompting giggles with musical humor, to acknowledging historical influences. TJ has three albums to their credit, including their latest, “Woods”, which came out in 2024. TJ performs regularly in the Twin Cities and Central Minnesota at festivals, concerts and private events.

Too Old Cat plays charming, original folk music that blends traditional and progressive elements. Their tunes for banjo, cello, accordion, and vocals explore themes of friendship, dreamspace, and how we move through and connect to the world.

The Twin Cities Hardingfelelag (TCHFL, Hardanger Fiddle Group) was founded in 1995 by Olav Jørgen Hegge, a tradition-bearer of fiddle and dance from the Valdres area of Norway. Olav Jørgen taught tunes from Valdres and other traditions, and encouraged the group to compete in Norway’s national fiddle competition in 2005. Today the TCHFL includes multiple generations, teens to grandparents. Original members of the group have been joined by many new members, including players and teachers of classical violin, bluegrass and old-time fiddle, jazz piano, church organ, and Swedish fiddling. We play for cultural events, dances, church services, weddings and memorial services, and have played in concert at various venues including the mosaic chapel at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.

The Twin Cities Hardingfelelag (TCHFL, Hardanger Fiddle Group) was founded in 1995 by Olav Jørgen Hegge, a tradition-bearer of fiddle and dance from the Valdres area of Norway. Olav Jørgen taught tunes from Valdres and other traditions, and encouraged the group to compete in Norway’s national fiddle competition in 2005. Today the TCHFL includes multiple generations, teens to grandparents. Original members of the group have been joined by many new members, including players and teachers of classical violin, bluegrass and old-time fiddle, jazz piano, church organ, and Swedish fiddling. We play for cultural events, dances, church services, weddings and memorial services, and have played in concert at various venues including the mosaic chapel at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.

The Upper Midwest Folk Fiddlers is a community volunteer group of acoustic musicians who honor and play the traditional fiddle music of early American pioneers in the region, with a heavy emphasis on the music of Nordic immigrants. The group was formed in St. Paul and now has chapters in Duluth and Moorhead. The music was compiled into a 137-tune songbook by “Clawhammer” Mike Sawyer, who spent years traveling the region, talking to the old-time musicians and their families, and then notating the tunes he learned about. The music is fun to play and even more fun to dance to!

Jorge Koenen is a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College. He is co-director of the ASI Lille Lag. A polymath with a business degree, he has participated in JMI’s Ethno International peer to peer music sharing program.

Mikey Marget is a cellist, songwriter, teacher, and poet based in Minneapolis (pronouns: they/them). Their instrumental music interweaves traditional folk with modern improvisational elements, while their singing tunes speak to radical joy through community. Mikey’s love of music is matched only by their love of humongous dogs.

Rose Arrowsmith grew up as a perpetual wreath-girl at Midsommar celebrations and is proud to be an all-around Scandi-nerd. She has been telling “deliciously imaginative” folktales, often from Sweden and Norway, since 2001. Rose founded, and for four years sang with, SVEA, an a cappella Swedish folk quartet, blending poetry and song. In her workshops, she draws on her experience as a camp counselor at Sjölunden, and language teacher at the American Swedish Institute.

Carol Sersland is considered a tradition bearer of the rural regional dances and songs of Telemark, Norway, inheriting traditional knowledge through her father – who grew up dancing in Norway. Her passion for Nordic dance has motivated her to use her abilities to encourage others to experience these traditions. Her teaching focuses on basic elements to build interactions with the music and then have fun with your dance partner.