Please contact anna@hardangermusikkfest.no if you want to buy tickets. We will also sell tickets in the lobby at Hotel Ullensvang during the festival.
All tickets are to find in Norwegian in ticketco.
WELCOME TO OUR FESTIVAL!
The 28th edition of Hardanger Musikkfest (Hardanger Music Festival) will be held 31 August - 3 September, 2023. This year's theme is GRØDE, meaning fertility or crop, and we offer an international and varied programme.
This is the time when late summer and autumn meet, and Hardanger is in the midst of harvesting and processing fruit and berries. This backdrop creates an authentic setting for the festival, where local traditions can be reflected in music and culture.
GRØDE (fertility) is nature's response to a long season of cultivation and patient care of soil and wood, and is celebrated in many cultures with autumn thanksgiving and musical tributes. At the same time, the term GRØDE comes across in music's rhetoric, where traditions and styles become seeds that sprout, are harvested and refined by new trends, ages, and interpretations. We wish to plant the festival in new soil and in frameworks that actualize local roots, with an artistic profile that has an eye to the future.
Therese Birkelund Ulvo
Artistic Leader
THURSDAY AUGUST 31
VORSPIEL AND VERNISSAGE
FØRELEIK OG VERNISSAGE
Opedalstunet, Lofthus, 4pm, NOK 170
Vernissage for this year's festival artist Elisabeth Emmerhoff. Together with the vocal group Små Grå, Sigurd Sverdrup Sandmo gives a crash course in Faroese ballads and satirical poems. A glass of Hardanger cider is included in the ticket.
OPENING CONCERT
OPNINGSKONSERT GRØDE
Ullensvang Church, Lofthus, 6pm, NOK 300
Ceremonious opening with a varied crop of chamber music.Anne Hytta plays newly composed music for Hardanger fiddle from the project "Gjennom dagen" (throughout the day).Andreas Brantelid (cello) and Christopher Park (piano) offer music by Joseph Woelfl and Sergei Rachmaninov. Opening speech by fruit farmer Harald Alvavoll.
CLASSIC HARDANGER TALKSHOW
KLASSISK KVEIK
Krossvoll, Lofthus, 8pm, NOK 350
The festival's many artists and temptations, presented in words and music. The evening's host is artistic director Therese Birkelund Ulvo. Delicious “hakkasteik” (local chopped steak specialty) is served. Lofthus ekspedisjon has an open bar. (In Norwegian).
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 1
MORNING SONGS
MORGONTONAR
Gløyp Kinsarvik, 8am, NOK 250
Musical breakfast with folk singer Unni Løvlid and violinist Hanna Kallestad.Breakfast is included.
MUSICAL BRUNCH
MUSIKALSK BRUNSJ
Fløy Bakeri, Lofthus, 11:15 am, NOK 250
Get close up with folk musician Anne Hytta and cellist Andreas Brantelid as they perform midday songs inside Fløy Bakeri. Brunch from Fløy is included.
FROM BEFORE TO NOW, A MUSICAL JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY
FRÅ FØR TIL NO - EI MUSIKALSK OPPDAGINGSFERD
Ullensvang Church, Lofthus, 1:15pm, NOK 250
The farmers in Hardanger started pressing apples for juice in the 18th century, and this is where our musical timeline starts. Pianist Christopher Park takes us on a musical journey through time, from 1773 to the present day. Sigurd Sverdrup Sandmo comes along as the knowledgeable expedition leader.
MELANCHOLY DISCO
VEMODIG DISCO
Krossvoll, Lofthus, 4pm, NOK 250
A concert performance written and performed by the vocal group Små Grå. The trio is comprised of the fabulous Nina Mortvedt, Benedikte Kruse and Mai Elise Solberg. They sing, talk, dance. - or, what do they actually do? Pure everyday magic!
MUSICAL FERTILITY
MUSIKALSK GRØDE
Hardangerhallen Hotel Ullensvang, 6pm, NOK 400
Ullensvang Skulemusikklag (Ullensvang schools music team) has itself participated in the design and content of this concert. Joining the team: composer Craig Farr and percussionists Owen Weaver and Håkon Skjæret from the Bit20 ensemble. Pianist Ingfrid Breie Nyhus joins the locals with her project, “Slåttepiano.”
FESTIVAL QUIZ
FESTIVALKVISS
Lofthus Ekspedisjon, 9pm, NOK 150
Informal and varied quiz, packed with musical surprises! Quizmasters: Karl Ystanes and Anna Gursli Langesæter
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 2
FERTILITY OF LOVE
KJÆRLEIKENS GRØDE
Skrivargarden, 11am, NOK 500
Soprano Mari Eriksmoen and pianist Christopher Park give an intimate and exclusive concert experience in the venerable Skrivargarden. Songs and romances are on the program - the soil is prepared for yearning and grand emotions.
CHAMBER MUSIC IN AGATUNET
KAMMERMUSIKK I AGATUNET
Agatunet, 12pm, NOK 300
Hardanger Music Festival's “starshot” 2022, Hanna Kallestad, brings the award-winning cellist Birgitta Oftestad to Agatunet, and offers both her own music and favorites from the chamber music repertoire. Sigurd Sverdrup Sandmo is host.
BOREALIS YOUNG COMPOSER
BOREALIS UNG KOMPONIST
Krossvoll, 1pm, NOK 250
Since autumn 2022, 4 young composers have worked to create new sound images and challenge themselves as music creators. The work premiered during Borealis 2023, and the Hardanger Music Festival marks the start of the project's tour of Western Norway.
UNNAMED
UNAMNA
Ullensvang Church, 3pm, NOK 275
Unni Løvlid (vocals), Anne Hytta (Hardanger fiddle) and Ingfrid Breie Nyhus (piano, harmonium) play Edvard Grieg's 9 Norwegian Folk Songs, Opus 66, in their own, completely distinctive versions. Traditional, innovative, and fresh - from three of the most exciting musicians we have in folk music.
CIDER TASTING WITH MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMEN
SIDERSMAKING MED MUSIKALSK FYLGJE
Lofthus Sideri, 5:15pm, NOK 480
This year we go to Lofthus Sideri (Lofthus Cidery). The vocal group Små Grå and multi-instrumentalist Kouame Sereba provide the musical bubbles, and we get to taste several products from the evening’s venue.
SURPRISE CONCERT
OVERRASKINGSKONSERT
Hardangerhallen Hotel Ullensvang, 7pm, NOK 400
An amazing package of music that surprises, moves and entertains. The entire spectrum of the festival's artists participate in constellations familiar and completely new. Therese Birkelund Ulvo and Sigurd Sverdrup Sandmo are the evening's presenters.
CELEBRATION NIGHT WITH CARSTENSEN AND KVERNBERG
FESTKVELD MED CARSTENSEN OG KVERNBERG
Krossvoll, 10pm, NOK 350
Stian Carstensen and Ola Kvernberg promise a terrific evening at Krossvoll. The two experiment with what happens when you put everything in the same pot, from jazz and classical, blues and bluegrass, to English pop and Balkan rhythms. The duo is also not averse to improvising on suggestions from the audience in good, social democratic spirit!
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 3
IMPROVISED CHILDREN'S THEATER!
IMPROVISERT BARNETEATER
Krossvoll, 11am, NOK 250 (per family)
With Halve Plutselig Barneteater (Half-sudden Children's Theatre), Små Grå, and Stian Carstensen. The audience is invited to come up with input and suggestions along the way, which influence what happens onstage. The artists improvise a funny theater performance with guaranteed laughter!
A VISIT WITH GRIEG
GRIEGVITJING
Ullensvang Church, 12pm, NOK 300
Andreas Brantelid, Ingfrid Breie Nyhus, and Christopher Park give an all-Norwegian chamber music program, from Thomas Tellefsen (celebrating his 200th birthday this year) to Ingfrid Breie Nyhus' own compositions. Grieg is also included, of course, and we get, among other things, “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen.”
CLOSING CONCERT
AVSLUTNINGSKONSERT
Kraftkatedralen, Tyssedal, 3pm, NOK 375
The festival will close with some of the most beautiful music from the chamber music repertoire, interspersed with completely new combinations. A concert that will reverberate all the way to next year's festival. To round off the year's music: multi-instrumentalist Kouame Sereba, soprano Mari Eriksmoen, violinist Hanna Kallestad, cellist Birgitta Oftestad, Hardanger fiddler Anne Hytta - and Unni Løvlid performing traditional vocal music.