![\"IMG_0570\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.soniasvikt.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/IMG_0570.jpg\")
<\/a>Oktoberst\u00e4mma allspel and audience<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>View of V\u00e4sen concert from my seat. Olov is wearing a striped shirt (of course!).<\/p><\/div>\n
Many of us went to Oktoberst\u00e4mma in Uppsala, this year with an amazing concert celebrating 25 years of the group V\u00e4sen, my favorite group.<\/p>\n
Oktoberst\u00e4mma is an annual gathering of folk musicians and dancers numbering usually about 1300. It takes place on a Saturday in October and lasts from noon to 1 AM. It is an amazing hubbub of concurrent concerts and dances in 4 venues in a big concert hall, plus informal jamming in the many hallways and corners of the very large building like a conference center.<\/p>\n
I participated in a 20 minute concert by this year\u2019s Eric Sahlstr\u00f6m Institute musicians, 6 out of the 9 of us. We then were joined by about 14 former students for H\u00e4rjedalsschottis. (I got to announce this tune and the additional people coming on stage. I managed one sentence in Swedish!) After the schottis we exited and the former students\u2019 group played for 35 minutes, then we joined again for a final tune. It was a really fun experience and went well.<\/p>\n
After that I went around to various events, found things to eat, and with my nyckelharpa walked around and found a\u00a0group or two to join that were\u00a0playing tunes I knew. There was a Boda polska workshop with way too many people. There is the old joke about the dance venue in Boda with the Boda Spelmanslag, that there is only room for forsteg (the beginning step where you walk forward), not for the turn. It was almost true of this dance workshop.<\/p>\n
The V\u00e4sen concert was beyond wonderful. The concert hall was full of people (it holds 1100 people) and excitement. First Olov Johansson, Roger Tallroth, and Mikael Marin came out and played a series of favorite tunes, then they began inviting guests to join. It was so interesting to see and hear their drummer Andr\u00e9 Ferrari, who doesn\u2019t travel or tour, and see and hear tunes that I hadn\u2019t seen them perform in the 4 concerts I have seen in the US as a trio. They were also joined by Linn\u00e9Dansarna, a wonderful group of 6 dancers, two of whom I know through the ESI. Additional guests were JPP (Finland), Lena Willemark, Norrbotten Big Band, and Trio X. They also showed video tributes from various folks. The overall happy feeling was palpable.<\/p>\n
I felt very privileged to be in the audience (5th<\/sup> row!) for this concert. And very privileged to now know Olov Johansson and be studying with him almost every week this year with a small group of 9 musician-students. Olov is such a wonderful musician and teacher and human (as are our other teachers, Ditte Andersson and Sonia Sahlstr\u00f6m).<\/p>\n Oktoberst\u00e4mma allspel and audience<\/p><\/div>\n View of V\u00e4sen concert from my seat. Olov is wearing a striped shirt (of course!).<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a>