About Laurie and Performance Schedule

Laurie Hart ... is a fiddler from Ithaca in central New York State. She specializes in Irish, Québécois, Scandinavian, French and American dance music. She also plays Swedish nyckelharpa, Norwegian Hardanger fiddle and a bit of hurdy-gurdy. Laurie is known for her beautiful tone, agile bowing, large repertoire, and fidelity to the diverse styles she plays.

Laurie has performed since 1986 at contradances, concerts, weddings, festivals and dance weekends across the U.S. and Canada. Laurie’s Ithaca-area ensembles include: Hedgehog, an Irish trio with Nick Whitmer on uillean pipes and Harry Aceto on guitar; a Swedish music duo with rikspelman Stefhan Ohlström; Fiddlespel and Friends, a big gang of Scandinavian musicians; the trio Alizé, which plays music of France and Brittany and has a CD called Le Canard perdu; and her long-standing contradance quartet The Contradictions. Her 2005 recording Cobbler's Dream / Le Rève du cordonnier, is with Québec guitarist Paul Marchand, with whom she continues to perform magical concerts in Canada.

Laurie was the recipient of a 2002 Fulbright Award to study the music and dance of Norway and Sweden, with additional trips to Scandinavia to teach, jam, perform and research in 2005 and 2007. She wrote a series of articles for Fiddler Magazine in 2003-04 about Norwegian music and is now working on a series of books about Scandinavian fiddling. Radio station WEOS' Rutabaga Roadhouse radio hour was devoted to her solo playing of nyckelharpa and Hardanger fiddle in spring 2006 (listen).

Her other CDs include: Fiddlespel (Scandinavian fiddling, nyckelharpa and hardanger fiddle, with fiddler Sarah Cummings), Danse ce soir! (Québécois dance tunes, with Greg Sandell, Paul Marchand and Stéphane Landry), and Gravity Hill (with guitarist William Coulter, a mix of Irish, Scottish and Québécois tunes). Her well-respected book Danse ce soir!: Fiddle and Accordion Music of Québec (with co-author Greg Sandell) is published by Mel Bay.

Laurie attended Eastman School of Music as a violin major, and began teaching fiddle in 1990. She is now in demand as a fiddle teacher for children, college students and adults, and has taught at Ashokan Northern Week, Ithaca College, and at Suzuki institutes around the Northeast.

My specialties:

Irish / Celtic
French Canadian
New England / Contra
Swedish
Norwegian
French / Breton

Other interests:

Scottish/Shetland/Cape Breton
English Country Dance
Old-time
Bluegrass
Texas and Swing
Latin Waltzes & Tangos
Greek Wedding Dances
Jewish Wedding Music
Russian music
Classical/baroque
WaterBear/name music

Click on Bands above to see just one band’s upcoming dates. This calendar lists all Laurie’s public gigs.

Nov 1 Sun

Halloween Contradance with the Contradictions and caller Vikki Armstrong at Ecology House, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, 7-10pm.

Nov 5 Thurs

Laurie plays for Hospicare Memorial service, 7pm at Congregational Church, Highland Rd. Ithaca NY.

Feb 12-14, 2010

Laurie and Stefhan Ohlström play for Scandinavian dancing at Dance Flurry, Saratoga Springs NY.

Jan 16, 2010 Sat.

Contradictions Contradance with caller Vikki Armstrong, Ithaca NY. Hands Four Dancers of Ithaca.

Ashokan Northern Wk
Juniata Folk College
Old Songs Festival
Dance Flurry Festival
La Grande Rencontre
Danse Neige
Festival Mémoire & Racines
FIAT in Québec City
Suzuki Institutes in Ithaca, Chatauqua, Albany and Toronto
New England Folk Fest
Brattleboro Dawn Dance
Jamestown Scandinavian Festival
Rochester Thanksgiving Dance Weekend
Elmira College Theatre Program
Ithaca College guest artist
... and many more!

Mike Ludgate’s Music Page has more up to date info than I could possibly provide (thank you, Mike!) on all kinds of local traditional music events, including:

Jam sessions of Irish, old-time, bluegrass, Cajun and other styles, open to all.
Concerts and festivals
Dances: There is always live music (and usually fiddlers) for the weekly Friday night Ithaca Contradance.

Québec

Ten years of research and collecting in the 1990s resulted in Danse ce soir!, a Mel Bay tunebook, with accompanying CD.

Norway and Sweden

I’ve travelled to Scandinavia several times to do research and to learn tunes and dances. I wrote a series of articles in Fiddler Magazine about Norwegian music (Fall 03, Win 03-04, Fall 04, and Win 04-05 issues; click link for reprints). Now I am working on series of books of traditional fiddle, nyckelharpa and Hardanger fiddle music of Scandinavia.

Brittany and Central France

I travelled to France in 2007 and am actively researching these beautiful dance music traditions...maybe it will lead to another book some day!

The Swedish Nyckelharpa

dates back to the 1300s. Its stronghold was and is the province of Uppland. Laurie plays a chromatic ‘harpa, a type developed in the 1920s. It has 16 strings, 12 of which are unbowed sympathetic under-strings. Listen. Go to American Nyckelharpa Association for more info.

The Norwegian Hardanger fiddle dates back to the 1600s and is played in Western and Central Norway. It has ink flower drawings and inlay of abalone, bone and ivory. There are four bowed strings and five sympathetic under-strings. Listen. Go to Hardanger Fiddle Association of America for more info.

Paying homage to the great nyckelharpist Eric Sahltström in Sweden.

Hurdy gurdy!

Hurdy gurdys date from 12th century Europe. Laurie’s French hurdy gurdy (vielle à roue), has a modern shape, but it is basically traditional in design. It has a key box to change the pitch of the melody strings. Instead of a bow it employs a rosined wheel which is turned with a crank. There are two melody strings (chanterelles), 3 drone strings (bourdons) and a special drone string (trompette) with a floating bridge that can be made to buzz rhythmically by speeding up the wheel. It also has 3 sympathetic strings.

Learn more at http://www.hurdygurdy.com/faq.htm