Vegar Vårdal

Musician, dancer and composer with 30 years experience performing, as well as teaching. Vegar resides in Vågå in Gudbrandsdalen, but has the whole world as a place of work. He plays both regular and hardanger fiddle, with education from the Norwegian Academy of Music. Vegar is characterized as an energetic, playful and versatile musician - and moves across a wide range of genres. In 2020 he became the "Folk musician of the year" , and received "Hilmarprisen" for his work.

  • Istem is a composition by Vegar Vårdal for three Hardanger fiddles, a Hardanger viola and a Hardanger cello. Five instruments with sympathetic strings that provide extra resonance and create a completely unique soundscape. The music is written by Vegar Vårdal and will be released March 6.th 2026.

    In addition to Vegar himself on the Hardanger fiddle, the quartet consists of Sivert Holmen (Hardanger fiddle), Nora Taksdal (Hardanger viola) and Johannes Martens (Hardanger cello). Instrument maker Ottar Kåsa is both with the quartet as a soloist and the man behind the Hardanger viola and Hardanger cello. The Hardanger fiddle is a Norwegian instrument known from the 17th century. It looks like a richly decorated violin, with strings that lie beneath the fingerboard and resonate and provide an extra dimension to the sound when played. When Ottar created both a viola and a cello with sympathetic strings, Vegar saw the possibility to make music for a full string quartet, combining solo Hardanger fiddle tradition with classical chamber music.

     What kind of music has folk musician Vegar composed for this strange combination? Is it baroque-inspired chamber music, danceable folk pop in a string ensemble, is it a chamber-like fiddle band or folk string quartet? The producer Anne Hytta gives the answer:

    “It is none of these, but something of everything. Vegar has made music from everything he has encountered as a playing and listening musician over the years. This is how I hear it. “Vegar-like”, strongly coloured by the personal contributions of the other musicians and by the personalities of Ottar’s sympathetic strings instruments. It sounds orchestral – broad and full – at one moment, like a flowing river of tradition the next, porous and open in quiet moments.”

    Ottar and Sivert are praised as some of Norway's best Hardanger fiddle players. Nora and Johannes are classical trained, and plays in two of Norway's most renowned orchestras: the Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. In Istem they meet in a common love for tradition, music and a playful approach to explore the music and find a common ground in Vegar’s compositions.

  • Uventa (unexpected) is a project where Vegar explores the possibilities in solo improvisation on various fiddles, piano and voice. Over the course of a whole year, he has made recordings where he has playfully explored the instruments, the rooms he plays in and the tradition. The result is unexpected, beautiful, playful and with more than one foot in folk music.

    The project has been allowed to develop over time. The music you make at the moment is coloured by your mood and state of mind, the room you are in and who you are around. The album contains both an ode to an old piano teacher, a memory of his father and a nod to good colleagues. "Several of the songs are dedicated to people I know, or have known. People are one of the things that inspires me most when I make music. Unexpected is a bit like an excerpt from a memory book, with musical memories of people I have met.". Watch the music video here

  • What happens when you challenge your own creative limits? Alumni means a gradueted student, and for this project Vegar have invited four former students of his: Bjørn Kåre Odde, Ingrid Lingaas Fossum, Sigrid Stubsveen and Sivert Holmen. They have all given Vegar a challenge, and in return they have all received a challenge from him. Together they have made music they never thought they would make. Video essay from the project here.

Vegar was born in Lofoten in 1975, grew up in Hovsherad, on the border between Agder and Rogaland before his family moved to Bærum, close to Oslo. He studied music in high school, but had no great ambitions to become a musician. He played classical music in his classes, but had his heart set on folk music. Fortunately, one of the teachers understood this. He accompanied Vegar on his final exam, and encouraged him to make as much folk music out of the classical pieces as possible.

The examiner was none other than Professor in folk music, Sven Nyhus. It wasn't just luck for the exam grade, a few weeks later Sven called and wanted Vegar as a student at the music academy. And so it was, the following year NMH admitted the first cohort for the master's degree program in folk music, and Vegar was one of two students.

30 years later, Vegar can look back on an exciting and diverse life as a folk musician, composer and educator. Norwegian folk music has developed over the past three decades and has taken on an ever-increasing role in the music scene. Genre encounters and new impulses are no longer a threat to tradition, but a way to renew and revive the music of the past for an ever-new and growing audience.