Furudals Bruk is a lovely and magical spot where I have been multiple times for the late July week of dance training just prior to Uppdansning medal testing. I had seen an intriguing poster describing a musicians’ gathering in mid-August during those visits. A flier for the 2018 event featured musicians Ale Möller, Per Gudmundson, and Ola Bäckström, and I was highly interested in seeing them. The event is hosted by my friend Chris Gruber, so I expected I would know some of the people there.

I completed my Big Silver medal in 2015, so I wasn’t going to Sweden for summer dance testing. We needed an event to bring us over to Sweden that summer, so my boyfriend Ted and I decided to participate in the spelmansstämma in Furudals Bruk. Once we began making inquiries, everything fell beautifully into place. Chris welcomed and invited us to join an “American Spelmanslag” including him and Carol Olson, Peter Michaelsen. Paul Johnson, Barbara Cameron, Mark Williamson (bass), Mike Palmer, Erica Ross, Marilee Mansfield (nyckelharpa), Janet Gabites. Chris sent a Dropbox link with notated tunes and mp3 files for a set of 13 tunes so we could practice. They were wonderful tunes and I enjoyed adding them to my repertoire, and the fact that I already knew several. It was interesting that although we did not know each other, we each knew Peter Michaelson, and we came together to form a wonderful group to play for a dance.

 

 

 

 

 

The concert by Ale Möller, Olle Linder and Mats Oberg was in the beautiful Ore Kyrka.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the stämma we traveled around Sweden. including a trip to the Dala häst factories near Rättvik.

We had a wonderful visit with friends Stig and Helen in Norrköping. We got to meet their adorable baby grandson, Holger!