EVENT LINK: https://www.hcscconline.org/2025concert.html

FEE: FREE

Hardanger Fiddle Concert

October 9, 2025
Concordia University Centrum 
​7 to 9pm

Join us on October 9 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Norwegian immigration to the United States! Fargo Spelemannslag will lead this celebration at Concordia College's Centrum with traditional folk music played on their hardanger fiddles, the national instrument of Norway.  
On October 9, 1825, the sloop Restauration arrived in New York City with 53 Norwegian immigrants from Stavanger. This was the first instance of organized immigration to the US by Norwegians. Starting in the 1920s the date has been commemorated as Leif Erikson Day, celebrating both ancient and recent contributions to North American history made by Norwegian Americans.

Fargo Spelemannslag, a local troupe of Hardanger fiddle players, will be the featured entertainers of the night. The Hardanger fiddle is the national folk instrument of Norway and dates to the mid-17th century. The hour-long concert will include Hardanger Fiddle history and the cultural context for the music. This concert is also part of the international commemoration of 200 years of Norwegian immigration to the US and their contributions to this country.

The Fargo-Moorhead community has enjoyed a recent resurgence in interest in making and playing Hardanger fiddles. Bud Larsen, of Brainerd, MN, is a master fiddle maker and founding member of Fargo Spelemannslag. Now in his 80s, Bud was apprenticed as a teenager to Gunnar Helland, the last of a Norwegian family of Hardanger fiddle makers that lived in the region. Bud has been transmitting the Helland method of the unique folk art of Hardanger fiddle-making over the last 20 years of his 40 years as a master luthier to apprentices supported by the North Dakota Council on the Arts, Lake Region Arts Council, the Sons of Norway, and the National Endowment for the Arts. 
Although the concert begins at 7pm, Spelemannslag members will be present to provide information and small group demonstrations starting at 6:30pm. The concert will also be live-streamed and recorded for those who are unable to attend in person.

​This event was made possible thanks to Concordia College, Fargo Spelemannslag, and the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County. Donations collected tonight will go toward the HCSCC’s support of the Fargo Spelemannslag and local Hardanger fiddle projects in the future.