“A relief to step down, although it’s meant a lot”

Bent Åserud is handing over the reins after 15 years as the chair of the Norwegian Jew’s Harp Forum.

By Veronika Søum
Translated by Lucy Moffatt

“It’s been really interesting and fun. I’ve had a lot of experiences and have met a lot of interesting people. I’ve made good friends in the community too – a nerdy, dedicated bunch from all over the world. It’s been a really nice job,” Bent Åserud tells us.

After chairing the Norwegian Jew’s Harp forum since 2008, Bent has passed on the baton to Kyrre Matias Goksøyr.

“Kyrre will do a great job,” he emphasises.

Now, Bent is looking forward to not waking up with a head full of forum-related tasks. But he’s not quite ready for the quiet life yet: Bent is still an alternate board member and the former chair is involved in plenty of events.

Not much time for things to sink in

There’s no doubt that the forum’s activity levels rose dramatically under Bent’s leadership. As well as the annual festival in September, which is mandated in the forum’s statutes, Bent and Stein Villa jointly took the initiative to set up the forging course in Gjøvik. It ended up becoming a collaborative project between the Norwegian Jew’s Harp Forum (NMF) and Gjøvik Fiddlers Group, and is now an annual event in May. The Music Weekend, as it is now known, which will be taking place for the sixteenth time this year, also offers courses in Jew’s harp and langeleik playing, traditional vocal styles and whittling overtone flutes from willow bark.

Bent was also involved in setting up Klangen før fela – a weekend of courses revolving around Norway’s oldest traditional instruments – which is held every other year in Oslo. In addition, Bent helped organise the production of a commissioned piece for Jew’s harp by Anne Hytta and Eivind Buene to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of NMF, which was performed at Riksscenen. This followed on from Arne Norheim’s commissioned piece for the tenth anniversary, initiated by Svein Westad.

“It’s been pretty full on – I’ve barely had time to digest one thing before the next one needs planning. We’ve made plans a year in advance, and in fact we ought to think about the location for next year’s festival before we meet for this year’s festival,” he says.

Although the board is generally the events committee, headed by the chair of the board, Bent stresses how important it is in such a small organisation for more people to get involved and make a contribution.

“When only a few of the board members have been able to help out, I’ve had to look around and bring in other people. It’s important for people who aren’t on the board to help shoulder the burden. If no one gets involved, nothing will get done. As an organisation, NMF relies on the Norwegian tradition of dugnad – with all members encouraged to pitch in when they can,” he says.

Looking forward to taking courses again

And when NMF was first established, that dugnad spirit was high. Bent was in Fagernes for the first festival in 1995, and he was there in 1998, too, when the NMF adventure began.

“There were ten or twelve of us left, including Bernhard Folkestad, John Melhus, Munnharpe-Jacob (Jacob Lavoll), Svein Westad, Rolf Karlberg, Ånon Egeland, Erik Røine, Rune Åserud. We decided to set up a forum because we saw a need to ease the burden after the festival had been organised in Fagernes three years in a row. We contacted the Lur and Ram’s Horn Association, and pretty much carbon-copied their statutes.”

“My brother Rune was on the first board. He designed the Jew’s harp logo, and other people contributed in their own ways,” Bent tells me.

When his brother died in 2006, it felt natural for Bent to become more involved in the forum. And in 2008, he was elected chair after serving on the board for several years. Now Bent is looking forward to going on courses and doing more learning. He’s also happy to see the digital Jew’s harp magazine up and running.

“I think it’s the glue that holds the forum together. Without it, we risk going from festival to festival without having any contact in between – it’ll get very small. The members magazine has been important from the start. I hope people will adjust to reading it in this new format.”