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Artist
Sven Nyhus
12+ albums
norwegianfolkscandinavianeverythingfiddle
about
Sven Nyhus (born in Røros on 21 May 1932; died 20 May 2023) was a Norwegian folk musician, fiddler, composer and musicologist. The son of fiddler (and construction worker) Peder Nyhus, and the father of Harding fiddler Åshild Breie Nyhus and pianist Ingfrid Breie Nyhus, among his albums are Bergrosa from 1984 and Grimen from 1997. He was appointed professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music from 1989 to 2002. He was awarded the Spellemannprisen honorary prize in 2000, and was decorated Commander of the Order of St. Olav in 2002 Nyhus, along with Hans Brimi, represented an archetype in Scandinavia, the stern-looking fiddler playing dance music, sometimes accompanied only by his own foot stomping out the beat. From the Østerdalen region of Norway where the flatfele ("flat fiddle" or violin) predominates, Nyhus sometimes played the Handanger fiddle (the distinctively Norwegian version of the violin popular elsewhere in the country, an instrument rather like the Baroque viola d'amore, with four extra strings vibrating sympathetically under the first set). Nyhus became one of Scandinavia's great archivists of folk music. He was also one of its popular performers, playing for many years in a traditional dance band. While he had only one CD released in the U.S. (Traditional Norwegian Fiddle Music in 1991 on Shanachie), he had several others released in Scandinavia. On the American album, he played solo, but on the Scandinavian albums he usually played as part of a quartet, quinte
