Old-Time Community Dance with KVARTS @ Eagles Club

One of Norway's best known traditional music bands, KVARTS (Norwegian for "quartz"), will be visiting Northfield March 28-30 and there will be three events in town.

The high point will be an old-time community dance at the Northfield Eagles Club, 304 Water Street South, in downtown Northfield on Monday night, March 30.

Dance instruction will be at 7 p.m. and the dance will start at 8 p.m. Cover charge is $10/per person at the door. Children 12 years and under, accompanied by an adult, will be admitted at no charge.

KVARTS has twice won the Spellemannspris — Norway's version of the "Grammy" — and their recordings and performances have won high critical praise.

The musical backgrounds of KVARTS' members range from classical to contemporary, bluegrass and blues to folk music. This range allows them to experiment and improvise without weakening their bonds to traditional folk music.

The members of KVARTS are:

• Jo Asgeir Lie (accordion) is from Ål, Norway where he is the principal of the Ål Music School for children. He has performed numerous times both as a soloist and with other performers. He has also performed on many CD recordings. In addition to performing, Lie composes and arranges music for other groups and soloists.
• Born in Sør-Fron, Øystein Rudi (fiddle, hardanger fiddle, viola) has been fiddling in the Gudbrandsdal traditional style for over 30 years. Øysten has received four Norwegian "Grammys" for his talents and has twice won the Norwegian national folk music competition (Landskappleiken) in standard fiddle. His love of the culture led him to develop his family farm into a cultural center that hosts over 12,000 visitors annually.
• Tom Willy Rustad (bass, two-row diatonic accordion, guitar, jaw harp, willow flute) is from Sør-Fron, Gudbrandsdal. He is head of the department of traditional music at the Norwegian Academy of Music. He plays guitar, diatonic accordion, contrabass, jaw harp and willow flute. He has won a number of international awards for his performance and has been nominated three times for the Spellemannspris, winning with the KVARTS recording, Steinsprang. In 2003 one his pupils, Mona Holm, won the World Championship for diatonic accordion in Tyrol. He has written two books about how to play the diatonic accordion.
• Erlend Styve (guitars and vocals)  is from Eidfjord, Hardanger and is based in Voss, Hordaland. He also plays in the group Twang Gang, a rockabilly band.

Lie and Rustad will perform at The Contented Cow on Saturday, March 28 and will lead instrumental workshops on Sunday, March 29. KVARTS CDs will be available for purchase at all three events.

Want a preview? Check out the YouTube video of KVARTS. This is a night of music you don't want to miss!

For more information and the complete schedule, see the Multe Music web site.