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Artist
Harald Haugaard began playing the violin at the age of 7 years old. His teacher was the local organ player in the village of Harndrup in the northwest region of the island Funen where Harald grew up. From the very beginning folk music was his biggest inspiration. One of his earliest and greatest influences was his grandfather Johannes who was a local wood carver and traditional accordion player. His mother Lene Sand Christensen was highly active in the folk dance environment as caller and teacher. Quite soon Haugaard began to play for her dances. The traditional Danish dance music became one of Harald’s biggest musical platforms and still today this genre appears prominently in his performances. Together with the folk music lessons, Harald also took classical violin lessons with both styles playing important roles in his life. In 1994 Harald was accepted at the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in Odense. Here he studied violin and choir/ensemble conducting. During his studies he changed from classical violin teachers to traditional folk fiddlers and with this experiment he became the first educated fiddler from the Academy. This special education was later the platform for the real bachelor/master education in traditional and contemporary Danish folk music which the Carl Nielsen Academy now runs. After Harald’s final exam in 1998 as fiddler and ensemble/choir conductor he was employed as a teacher with the very same course. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as the head of the fol