Systerspel · Benedicte Maurseth

Systerspel is a poetic and sensitive storytelling concert based on Benedicte Maurseth's book "Systerspel" which tells the story of her country’s female fiddlers who traversed Norway’s spectacular landscapes from the 18^th to the early 20^th century. Norwegian Hardanger fiddle player and composer Benedicte Maurseth takes us on a journey to meet these proud, artistically and financially independent women fiddlers who travelled from village to village playing for dances and weddings. Why did they later on vanish from everyday life and festivities, consciousness and thought, writing and speech? They were here, and then they were gone? Playing the fiddle was for men. That’s what we’ve always believed. Maurseth has uncovered the women, from written and oral tradition. They are more numerous than you might have thought.

Benedicte Maurseth is a Norwegian folk musician. She began playing the violin at the age of seven. A composer, she is the author of what are soon to be ten albums, the first of which, Rosa I Botnen, was released in 2006. Since 2005, she has toured the world in concert, both as a soloist and in collaboration with other musicians.

Artist

• Benedicte Maurseth, Hardanger fiddle, narration, reading
• Production
  • Hildegun Riise – direction, script development,
  • Birk Nygaard – scenography, and video design
  • Randiane Sandboe  - light design
  • Mari Kanstad Johnsen - illustration
  • Kieran Kolle - video
  • Rune Døli – graphic design
  • Jørgen Træen – sound collage
  • Tina Louise Ådland - French translation
  • Benedicte Maurseth – composition and script development

Cultural programming in conjunction with the exhibition "Harriet Backer (1845-1932). The music of color" is supported by the Royal Embassy of Norway in France.