Soundtracks: Meet the Hardanger Fiddle

With Bergamot Quartet and Dan Trueman

Wednesday, February 4, 2026 - 7:00pm

Free and open to the public.

Join Bergamot Quartet and Princeton Music Department Chair Dan Trueman in an exploration of Norway's National Instrument, the Hardanger fiddle. The quartet will perform new works composed and adapted by Trueman specifically for these unique stringed instruments, tracing the fiddle's origins from 1650 Norway to today. Come and learn what makes these instruments special, and how Bergamot Quartet is reviving the Hardanger tradition for modern audiences.

Bergamot Quartet holding their Classical and Hardanger instruments

Attendees of the presentation will have the opportunity to enter a drawing to win tickets to the Princeton Symphony Orchestra's February 7 and 8 concerts, featuring the music of beloved Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.

Soundtracks is presented as a PSO BRAVO! community outreach program in partnership with the Princeton Public Library.

The series is sponsored in the 2025-26 season by AffinIT.

Featured

Project Resonance is a multifaceted collaborative endeavor between contemporary music specialists Bergamot Quartet and composer/fiddler Dan Trueman, with the Hardanger fiddle music of Norway at its center. Bergamot Quartet plays a set of four Hardanger instruments made by Lynn Berg, one of the only sets of its kind in the world. Under the auspices of Project Resonance, Bergamot and Trueman are creating new repertoire for the quartet of instruments, working with both traditional tunes and experimental/modern musical language, as well as recording, touring, commissioning, and providing a variety of educational opportunities. “Resonance” speaks not only to the five sympathetic strings on each Hardanger instrument which give them their unique sound, but to Trueman and Bergamot’s pursuit of discovering the ways in which the project can resonate across folk traditions, modes of performing, and beyond.