… with deep roots …
Reidun Horvei is a versatile performer with one foot in folk music and the other in the classical vocal tradition. She is a soprano, folk singer, and storyteller, and for more than forty years she has been a clear and distinctive voice in Norwegian musical life.
Through song, music, and storytelling, she takes audiences on journeys through Norwegian history and lived lives — from mountain pastures and rural communities to cities and ocean crossings. She has extensive experience from concerts both nationally and internationally, numerous album releases, book projects, and awards — but above all: a deep commitment to keeping cultural heritage alive.
Who is Reidun?
Reidun Horvei is an experienced and passionate interpreter of Norwegian folk music and storytelling traditions. She grew up in Voss in a musical family where piano, violin, guitar, and singing were a natural part of daily life, and she learned folk songs in the traditional way from her grandmother.
With an education from the Bergen Music Conservatory and many years on tour with Rikskonsertane, she has developed an artistic expression that combines classical vocal art with the folk singing tradition. Since 1992, she has served as county musician in Hordaland/Vestland. Based partly at the Hardanger Folk Museum in Utne, she has led productions, collected folk tunes, and built bridges between archives and stage.
In recent years, Reidun has been at the center of a vibrant artistic development where folk singing, history, and cross-disciplinary creativity have gained increasing space. She has been a key driving force behind projects that highlight Hardanger’s cultural heritage in new forms—both at home and internationally.
What unites all these productions is Reidun’s deep commitment to giving traditional material new life—through collaboration, innovation, and an artistic voice that brings both history and music into our own time.
Artistic Practice
Deep Roots in Tradition
Reidun carries a lifelong familiarity with folk singing—a repertoire she first learned through family, elder tradition-bearers, and living practice. She knows both the history and the people who have carried these songs forward.
A Boundless Joy of Singing
She is known for her infectious enthusiasm and warm stage presence. When Reidun sings and tells stories, the audience feels seen, included, and part of something genuine and alive.
An Experienced Performer
For many years she has toured throughout Norway and far beyond its borders, singing at festivals, in churches, cultural venues, and classrooms—for children, youth, and adults. Everywhere she goes, she meets her audience with the same openness and warmth.
A Communicator and Bridge-Builder
Through concerts, workshops, books, and recordings, Reidun has brought forward a rich treasure of songs from Western Norway. She connects archives and stage, history and the present.
Faithful to the Cultural Heritage
For Reidun, folk singing is not something meant to stand still in time, but something to be used and shared. She sees herself as a steward of a thousand-year-old tradition—and someone who wants to pass the songs on to new generations, just as they were once passed on to her.
Vision
My vision is to keep Norwegian folk singing alive as a part of life here and now—not as something that belongs only to the past. I want to bring forward songs and stories that have nearly fallen silent, giving them new life on stage, in everyday school settings, and in encounters with new generations.
To me, this musical heritage is a cultural relay baton that has passed from voice to voice for hundreds of years. When I share these songs—especially those reflecting everyday life, work, love, and sorrow—I want to remind us of where we come from and what we carry with us into the future.
In this way, I strive to be a bridge-builder between past and present, between small rural communities and the wider world, and between those who once sang and those who today listen, learn, and sing along.