Anika has been taking violin lessons since she was 7 years old. Her teacher, Martha Levenson teaches Scandinavian Fiddle tunes by ear and this combination of learning has worked well for our family. We enjoy folk music, we wanted an ear or suzuki type instruction for her and through random connections we met Martha. This started our adventures in Scandinavian music.
Anika was very eager to learn how to play the violin and from her exposure as a preschooler through the Musikgarten curriculum, she has very solid listening and music skills. Once Anika caught onto the basics of playing the violin, she started soaking up tunes like a sponge. She would come and play a tune or two with Martha at a few festival performances. The Seattle version of the Lilla Spelmanslag, a youth strings group was revived and that gave her further opportunities to play in a group with other string musicians, learn more about Scandinavian Music, and perform.
In the Fall of 2010, Martha heard about the Young Student Hardingfele Loan Program through the HFAA. Martha shared a hardingfele with Anika once when she was 7 so she was aware of what they were. Martha asked if she would be interested in applying and her answer was “sure.” So, we applied, not knowing if she had a chance or not and here we are, the first recipients of this amazing half sized hardingfele one year loan.
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