Vegar Vårdal

Vegar Vårdal (b. 1975) has an energy and a musical language that can tackle folk music seriously. Because here there is room for improvisation, playfulness, rhythm and dialogue. It is important for Vegar to work in multiple genres, but always with folk music as a base. Vegar's musicianship is reflected in a variety of collaborations and both have spread their musicality across Europe. He is both folk musician and a folk dancer, and have his home deep in Gudbrandsdalen, Vågå. He plays both hardingfiddle and fiddle, in addition to have the folkdance as a career. He graduated from the Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo and the dance program at NTNU in Trondheim. In 2017 he released his first solo album, pure norwegian fiddle tradition from his childhood. He has won the national folkdance competition, and as a fiddleplayer he is rated in the highest leag of folkmusicians in Norway. Vegar has also played with musicians as Mikhail Alperin, Frode Haltli, Nuala Kennedy and Arkady Shilkloper, and dancers as Janne Eraker, Hallgrim Hansegård and Ulf-Arne Johannessen. As a contemperary musician is Vegar used because of his improvation skills, and ability to form this music. Martin Ødegaard has writtin a couple of solopieces, and a Sinfonietta with solo hardingfiddle dedicated to Vegar, and this piece has been playd on several classical music festivals. In 2015 he was invited to Veneziabiennalen to play in the exhibition in the Nordic Pavillion toghether with Camille Norment Trio.