Three generations of the Dahlin family are part of the American Swedish Institutes Spelmanslag, performing traditional folk music of Rättvikarnas, Sweden. Paul Dahlin was born April 14, 1954, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He took up the fiddle in 1963, when he was nine. He was heir to a rich tradition of music from the Swedish province of Dalarna. Paul’s grandfather, Ivares Edvin Jonsson, departed his native Rojerasen (in the Dalarna province) in 1924 at the age of 19. His mother forbade him to take his fiddle, saying, "You are going to America to work, not to play." Several years later, however, he was reunited with his beloved instrument. He spent the rest of his life in Minnesota, passing on his fiddling and fiddle-making traditions to his children, Bruce and Nancy (Paul's mother), and to Paul.
By the time he was 17, Paul was performing regularly with his elders at Swedish American events. As he mastered the idiom, he moved into the lead role while playing with his grandfather, who had Americanized his name to Edwin Johnson, and Uncle Bruce. The three fiddlers called their group the American Swedish Spelmans ("folk instrumentalist") Trio. They made their first major public appearance at the Snoose Boulevard Festival in Minneapolis in 1971. They performed at festivals and on the public radio program Prairie Home Companion and, in 1983, gave a command performance for the king of Sweden when he visited the United States. Before his death in 1984, Through these performances Edwin Johnson, Paul’s grandfather was “discovered” by fiddlers from Sweden who were amazed by his faithfulness to the regional style and repertoire that was thought to have disappeared.
Dahlin began teaching Swedish instrumental music at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. In 1985 he developed his class into the ASI Spelmanslag ("fiddlers' team"). Paul has served as musical director since its inception.
The popularity of the adult spelmanslag led to the creation of a youth fiddling group at the ASI. As one might imagine, Paul has invested much time and energy in teaching and encouraging this new generation of musicians.
When the group performed in 1989 at Sweden's largest folk music festival, Musick vid Siljan, Dahlin was hailed by his Swedish colleagues as an important keeper of a deep musical tradition that includes wedding tunes and dance melodies that are more direct and less ornamented than some strains of contemporary Swedish fiddling. In 1994 Paul was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts, recognition of his outstanding contributions as a keeper and teacher of Swedish American musical traditions.
His original composition "Danielpojkens Polska" was selected from 40 entries as the most outstanding composition in its genre at Sweden's Dalarnas Hemygdsrings competition. The tune is in the traditional polska form. Not to be confused with the polka, it is the "oldest dance rhythm in Sweden" and is considered by some scholars as a predecessor of the triple-meter waltz.
Paul's son, Daniel Dahlin, born in 1983, started playing the violin when he was five years old, starting first in a Suzuki program. Then, around the age of 14, he became interested in Swedish music.
Name of the musical trio "Äkta Spelmän"
Äkta (ék tuh), a Swedish word meaning “genuine” or “true,” is the name of this fiddle ensemble from Minnesota dedicated to the keeping of traditional Swedish music. The group’s leader, Paul Dahlin, fiddler, violin repairman, composer, festival organizer, and cultural spokesman, is the American “taproot” to one of Sweden’s most venerable and widely admired varieties of regional music, stemming from the Dalarna province.
Bio Information from
rvanews.com/et...
Paul Dahlin and the Äkta Spelmän (the "genuine fiddlers")
www.greatlakesf...
Scandinavian Fiddling Resourcesby Carl Rahkonen
www.people.iup....
Paul talks about his families fiddling traditions in Minnesota part 1 & 2
wn.com/paul_da...
Негізгі бет Akta Spelman (Swedish Fiddle Music) Paul Dahlin - ASI Spelmanslag at Gammelgarden
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