Jan. 10, 2025

Sigmund Groven interview

Sigmund Groven joins me on episode 127.
Sigmund is a chromatic player who is a household name in his native Norway.
He was inspired to take up the harmonica after hearing Tommy Reilly on the radio. After taking some lessons with Tommy they formed a lifelong friendship, with Sigmund even becoming his manager.
Sigmund has released over thirty albums in his own name through his illustrious career and has played in venues and orchestras around the world, including Carnegie Hall, throughout Europe and in Asia, where he enjoyed chart success in South Korea. He plays classical, pop, contemporary, light music and Norwegian Folk and still enjoys recording and performing regularly.

Links:
Sigmund’s website:
https://sigmundgroven.com/

Sigmund's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/TheSigmundGrovenPage

Discography:
https://sigmundgroven.com/discography/

Videos:
75th birthday concert on Norwegian TV:
https://tv.nrk.no/serie/kork-hele-landets-orkester/sesong/2021/episode/MKKA11001721

Tommy Reilly playing Colors Of My Life:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eCEv-J-kL4

Playing with the pipe organ:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkvAcaoMVXY

Playing at Jersey festival in 1987, with James Moody:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS7GSLCaxO8

Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS
--------------------------------
Blue Moon Harmonicas: https://bluemoonharmonicas.com

Support the show

01:29 - Sigmund a household name in his native Norway, with many TV and radio appearances there

01:55 - Born in Heddal, about two hours south of Oslo

02:14 - There was a concert on Norwegian TV celebrating Sigmund’s 75th birthday

02:50 - Worked for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation at the time started playing harmonica

03:16 - Made first radio concert in 1965

03:59 - Only plays chromatic harmonica, inspired to take it up after hearing Tommy Reilly on the radio

05:21 - Met Tommy Reilly for the first time age 14 after writing fan letters to Tommy

05:36 - Listened to Tommy lots on the radio, as he was on the BBC and other stations around Europe lots in the 1950s

06:13 - Sigmund’s father bought him a chromatic. Father was an amateur violin player, also playing the Norwegian version of the violin (hardanger fiddle)

06:31 - No harmonica teachers in Norway at the time so emulated recordings of Tommy Reilly

06:45 - Sigmund’s first meeting with Tommy in Oslo

07:15 - Tommy gave the 14 year old Sigmund his first lesson when they met: the right hand and mouth positions

07:29 - Tommy always used tongue block

07:56 - Sigmund next met Tommy when he was 16 years old, bringing his son David, with Sigmund and David becoming like brothers and Sigmund was the Best Man at David’s wedding

09:15 - Tommy developed the first Silver Concert harmonica in 1967

09:25 - Tommy bought the Hammond’s Wood house in Surrey, UK, and started ‘Tommy Reilly’s International Harmonica Club’ in 1968, with players coming from all over the world (including Sigmund)

10:09 - Sigmund became Tommy’s manager in 1967 after helping produce Tommy’s album ‘Colors Of My Life’ on Polydor records, where Tommy used his Silver Concerto chromatic for the first time

13:26 - Recorded an album of duets with Tommy in 1976, Music For Two

13:48 - Sigmund accompanied Tommy on his tours around Europe

15:11 - Sigmund made first solo album in 1975

15:42 - Sigmund knew Tommy to the end of his life (in the year 2000), and they performed together in 1999 at the Dartington Music Festival in England

16:15 - Tommy emphasised how music comes first, with the harmonica a great vehicle to express yourself due to being part of your breath

17:07 - Tommy’s deep technical approach to the chromatic was developed when he was a prisoner of war in World War Two with joining notes together smoothly a critical aspect for chromatic

18:04 - Sigmund has focused his practise on moving from one note to the next, concentration and working on the most difficult sections

18:35 - Has learnt a lot with all the fantastic musicians he has worked with around the world

18:56 - Sigmund has worked with two of Norway’s finest classical organists, including the HarmOrgan album with Iver Kleive playing pipe organ

20:05 - How Sigmund amplifies the chromatic when playing with a pipe organ, including use of a condenser microphone

20:52 - Has recorded various albums of Norwegian Folk music

21:09 - Sigmund’s uncle (Eivind Groven) was a classical composer and rest of his family played music

22:03 - Sigmund released an album of Grieg music (Norwegian composer), and lots of great composers based their work on the folk music of their country

23:01 - Two albums with great Norwegian fiddle player Knut Buen and other great musicians he has played with

25:07 - Played on a very popular song in Norway called Varsog, composed by Henning Sommerro

25:56 - Henning Sommerro wrote a concertino for Sigmund for the album ‘Borders’ in 2023, which has been nominated for a Grammy award

27:28 - Has performed various orchestral pieces written for harmonica

27:55 - Tommy Reilly, Larry Adler and John Sebastien set the foundations of playing orchestral music on the chromatic

28:49 - Played at Carnegie Hall in 1990 and has toured the US and Canada and playing in Alaska and other US states

30:27 - Has done a lot of work on cruise ships and how this led on to other work

31:16 - Also spent a lot of time playing in Asia since the year 1995, when he went to the World Harmonica Festival in Japan (and judged Shima Kobayashi in the competition)

32:08 - Met many great players in Asia, and is a big admirer of the King’s Harmonica Quintet and played with them in Hong Kong

33:03 - Toured Japan with Joe Sakimoto

33:12 - In 2001 went to South Korea after one of his albums was in the charts there and went every year up to the Covid pandemic

34:12 - Met one of his brightest students in South Korea, Yoonseok Lee

35:43 - Here, There and Everywhere album of Sir George Martin songs. One of the first artists on George Martin’s books was Tommy Reilly

37:26 - Famous English composer John Wilson conducted the orchestra on the Here, There and Everywhere album

38:13 - Has released around thirty six albums under his own name

39:01 - Helped run the Norwegian Harmonica Forum for the last forty years

39:21 - Did a series of five programmes about harmonica with Tommy Reilly on Norwegian TV which were the precursor to the Norway Harmonica Forum

40:59 - The chromatic harmonica maker Georg Pollestad attended these Norwegian Harmonica Forum sessions

41:59 - Sigmund’s best harmonica student was the first person to major at the Music Academy in Trondheim, and went on to become world champion at the 1987 Jersey Festival

42:41 - Sigmund attended the 1987 Jersey festival and the best ever jury at the competition there

43:34 - Norwegian seminar in 2025 will take place at the same location as the first one in 1985

43:51 - Was a Professor at the Academy of Music in Oslo while Yoonseok Lee studied there

44:44 - Ten minute question

46:09 - Doesn’t use corner switching (much) in his playing

46:15 - Uses tongue blocking and sometimes puckers in the top octave

47:15 - Thinks tongue switching is a good technique for those who use it

47:29 - Tommy Reilly didn’t use corner switching

47:40 - Sigmund plays the Polle chromatic, and how that was developed in Norway by Georg Pollestad, based on the Hohner Silver Concerto

49:55 - Tommy Reilly also ordered and play the Polle chromatic

51:12 - The Polle chromatic is still available to purchase, but not for much longer

51:31 - Only plays 12 hole chromatics

51:40 - Has made recordings on the bass harmonica and the tenor chromatic (with a lower octave)

52:11 - Did start out on a 16 hole chromatic

52:34 - Uses hands to shape the sound a lot

52:52 - Mainly uses key of C chromatic but has recorded on a G chromatic in order to get lower range

54:19 - Mic of choice is a good condenser used on a stand, as uses hand effects

54:55 - Difference in Toots Thielemans approach of holding mic in hand was mainly driven by him playing in jazz genre

55:25 - Always has a monitor on-stage when playing with orchestras and quality of sound systems these days

56:07 - Obviously has to use a microphone when playing with an orchestra, or won’t be heard

56:22 - James Moody (who wrote lots of pieces for harmonica) was very conscious of the sound balance with harmonica and orchestra

56:39 - Effects include a little reverb sometimes

56:57 - Future plans for 2025

57:57 - Health has meant can still actively play and travel so much at 78 years young

WEBVTT

00:00:00.130 --> 00:00:02.335
Sigmund Groven joins me on episode 127.

00:00:03.810 --> 00:00:07.652
Sigmund is a chromatic player who has a household name in his native Norway.

00:00:08.114 --> 00:00:11.957
He was inspired to take up the harmonica after hearing Tommy Riley on the radio.

00:00:12.497 --> 00:00:18.102
After taking some lessons with Tommy, they formed a lifelong friendship, with Sigmund even becoming his manager.

00:00:18.842 --> 00:00:32.014
Sigmund has released over 30 albums in his own name through his illustrious career, and has played in venues and orchestras around the world, including Carnegie Hall throughout Europe and in Asia, where he enjoyed chart success in South Korea.

00:00:32.475 --> 00:00:39.968
He plays classical pop contemporary light music and Norwegian folk and still enjoys recording and performing regularly.

00:00:40.848 --> 00:00:43.334
This podcast is sponsored by Seidel Harmonicas.

00:00:43.734 --> 00:00:53.093
Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Seidel Harmonicas.

00:01:25.378 --> 00:01:27.439
Hello, Sigmund Groven, and welcome to the podcast.

00:01:27.980 --> 00:01:28.521
Hello, Neil.

00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:30.582
Thanks so much for joining, Sigmund.

00:01:30.643 --> 00:01:36.167
So, you're talking to us from Norway, where you are a household name on the harmonica, is that correct?

00:01:36.727 --> 00:01:37.028
Well, I've

00:01:37.048 --> 00:01:42.012
been around for quite a while, and I've played a lot of concerts and done a lot of radio and television.

00:01:42.052 --> 00:01:49.138
So, over the years, you know, I've played for many people and made lots of recordings.

00:01:49.218 --> 00:01:54.804
So, a lot of people here associate, when they hear about the harmonica, they're usually associated with me.

00:01:55.343 --> 00:02:02.849
You were born in Heddal, which is in the county of Telemark.

00:02:03.329 --> 00:02:09.457
About two hours drive from Oslo, southwest of Oslo, which is the capital.

00:02:09.919 --> 00:02:10.218
Great.

00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:20.633
So as you say, though, you've featured on television and radio there, but you just a few years ago celebrated your 75th birthday and there was a concert on TV sort of devoted to that.

00:02:20.674 --> 00:02:20.854
Yeah,

00:02:21.615 --> 00:02:22.096
that's right.

00:02:22.316 --> 00:02:32.030
Yes, which also happened to be the not only my 75th birthday, but also the 75th anniversary of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

00:02:32.481 --> 00:02:35.411
which was founded the same year that I was born.

00:02:46.177 --> 00:02:48.801
So it was a

00:02:48.861 --> 00:02:49.723
very happy occasion.

00:02:49.742 --> 00:02:49.763
I

00:02:50.343 --> 00:02:59.075
think before you started playing harmonica or before you started concentrating on music, you worked for the sort of Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation as an announcer and presenter and music producer.

00:02:59.175 --> 00:02:59.676
Is that right?

00:02:59.918 --> 00:03:03.802
Well, it was all parallel in a way because everything happened at the same time.

00:03:03.823 --> 00:03:05.545
I was at university.

00:03:06.241 --> 00:03:11.332
And I was offered a part-time sort of freelance job as an announcer.

00:03:11.372 --> 00:03:16.563
And I had already started broadcasting with my harmonica.

00:03:16.584 --> 00:03:18.968
I did my first radio concert.

00:03:19.330 --> 00:03:22.592
as long ago, would you believe it, as 1965.

00:03:22.612 --> 00:03:26.395
I was very young then, mind you.

00:03:27.556 --> 00:03:41.288
So everything happened at the same time as it were, while still being at university, playing my harmonica and doing work on the radio as an announcer and later, as you mentioned, as a producer.

00:03:41.329 --> 00:03:44.931
So it was a very busy time.

00:03:45.272 --> 00:03:50.858
And after a while, I had to leave out some of those activities because it was getting too much.

00:03:50.897 --> 00:03:58.786
So I concentrated on the music side, you know, with my harmonica and also writing music, which was slowly growing.

00:03:59.127 --> 00:04:01.868
So you're a chromatic harmonica player, yeah?

00:04:02.349 --> 00:04:02.689
Oh, yes.

00:04:02.991 --> 00:04:05.813
Tell us how you got into playing the chromatic harmonica.

00:04:06.174 --> 00:04:09.137
Well, I can tell you exactly when it started.

00:04:09.157 --> 00:04:10.658
I was nine years old.

00:04:10.699 --> 00:04:20.911
I was sitting together with my friend on a Saturday afternoon waiting for Children's Hour on the radio, which was the main programme that all the children used to listen to.

00:04:20.951 --> 00:04:31.771
And just before the children's programme started, there was music on the radio and there was a record played which really caught my interest.

00:04:31.891 --> 00:04:33.834
I really got so hooked on it.

00:04:33.855 --> 00:04:39.625
It was a strange experience because it hit me like a lightning bolt.

00:04:40.098 --> 00:04:51.401
I noticed what the announcer said after the record had been played, and the announcement came, this was Firefly by Donald Phillips, played by Tommy Riley.

00:04:57.956 --> 00:05:00.701
MUSIC PLAYS

00:05:07.553 --> 00:05:15.202
And as I said, this made such an impression on me that from that moment on.

00:05:15.644 --> 00:05:26.298
The harmonica became my instrument, and Tommy Riley was my idol, and I was very fortunate in meeting him at the early age of 14.

00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:45.310
After having heard his recording on the radio, I wrote fan letters, and I got a nice reply from him, and then I started getting the BBC Radio Times, because in those days, this was late 50s, Tommy was always on the BBC.

00:05:45.812 --> 00:06:01.410
He also could be heard on most other radio stations in Europe, so I tried to track him down and listen to whatever I could manage to hear from his records and his performances.

00:06:11.970 --> 00:06:15.696
My father got me a chromatic harmonica.

00:06:15.716 --> 00:06:18.060
My father was an amateur musician.

00:06:18.120 --> 00:06:26.533
He was a headmaster at a school, but he was an amateur fiddle player, violin, and also the Norwegian national instrument, the hardanger fiddle.

00:06:27.113 --> 00:06:30.499
So he was very knowledgeable about music.

00:06:31.240 --> 00:06:36.108
So, of course, there was no teachers in Norway, nobody who knew anything about the chromatic.

00:06:36.689 --> 00:06:39.694
So that's why I tried to emulate what I heard.

00:06:40.386 --> 00:06:43.411
when listening to Tommy Riley on the radio.

00:06:44.333 --> 00:06:51.004
And as mentioned, when I was 14, I was very fortunate in meeting Tommy.

00:06:51.064 --> 00:07:08.779
He came to Oslo to play with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and I was invited by the conductor of the radio orchestra to come and meet Tommy and his wife, Ina, which was a like a dream come true for the 14 year old country boy.

00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:14.065
So and Tommy was, he was so generous and helpful.

00:07:14.247 --> 00:07:18.211
So he gave me my very first lesson.

00:07:19.093 --> 00:07:20.774
Do you remember what he taught you in that first lesson?

00:07:21.495 --> 00:07:22.055
Yes, I do.

00:07:22.096 --> 00:07:49.934
Because two of the most important things to get the right hand position and the right mouth position using the tongue on the instrument the tongue blocking method which was which he always used and so I had to concentrate on that because I had been on my own I had just been playing the pucker method you know with just And also, I didn't hold the harmonica very well either.

00:07:49.994 --> 00:07:54.959
So those two things, he said, you concentrate on those two things until I see you again next time.

00:07:54.999 --> 00:07:57.302
And so you did see him again.

00:07:57.562 --> 00:08:00.425
Did you have lessons with him at age 17?

00:08:01.146 --> 00:08:06.490
Well, he came back to play in Norway two years later when I was 16, actually.

00:08:06.531 --> 00:08:13.117
Then he continued giving me some very, well, some invaluable lessons.

00:08:13.218 --> 00:08:33.918
tips on on the actual playing of the instrument and on that trip he brought his son david who is one year younger than me so we became great friends and we're i mean even even today we're about almost like brothers you know so that was how it developed and then it continued from there

00:08:34.210 --> 00:08:37.613
You became very close to Tommy, as you say, you're very close to his son.

00:08:37.653 --> 00:08:41.777
You were his son's best man at his wedding, I understand.

00:08:41.797 --> 00:08:42.716
That's right, yeah.

00:08:43.398 --> 00:08:46.740
So how did your relationship with Tommy develop?

00:08:46.760 --> 00:08:49.903
Did you come across the UK and stay with him or see him there?

00:08:49.943 --> 00:08:50.464
Yes, I did.

00:08:50.504 --> 00:08:51.225
Yes, I did.

00:08:51.345 --> 00:08:58.311
So from then on, it was back and forth to England and lots of things were happening.

00:08:58.431 --> 00:09:05.238
You know, I also invited him to meet my family in In Telemark.

00:09:05.759 --> 00:09:09.126
And so the relationship developed.

00:09:09.246 --> 00:09:17.745
So it was almost, it was like family, you know, and this was the time around the time when lots of things were happening in Tommy's career.

00:09:17.785 --> 00:09:21.693
He developed the first silver coin.

00:09:21.793 --> 00:09:38.451
concert harmonica, 1967, and Tommy and his wife Ina, they bought a beautiful house and property called Hammonds Wood in Surrey and started what they called Tommy Riley's International Harmonica Club.

00:09:39.212 --> 00:09:46.841
He had been asked by so many harmonica players from different countries whether he could give them lessons.

00:09:47.062 --> 00:10:02.437
So that's why they started the teaching of At Hammerswood from 1968 onwards with players coming from all over the world, actually from Asia and from different European countries and so on and so forth.

00:10:03.038 --> 00:10:04.039
And I was part of that.

00:10:04.299 --> 00:10:06.102
So it all grew.

00:10:06.123 --> 00:10:08.586
It was developing rapidly.

00:10:08.625 --> 00:10:11.691
And you became Tommy's manager.

00:10:11.931 --> 00:10:13.613
At what point did that happen?

00:10:14.114 --> 00:10:18.880
Well, that happened around that same time because this was 1967.

00:10:19.905 --> 00:10:23.692
And at that time, he was not really making any recordings.

00:10:23.751 --> 00:10:30.481
He had been making lots of records during the 50s and the early 60s, but nothing was happening on that front.

00:10:31.182 --> 00:10:35.850
And I had this urge to make something happen.

00:10:35.890 --> 00:10:40.538
So I managed to make contact with Norwegian Polydor.

00:10:40.817 --> 00:10:48.330
Polydor was one of the big recording companies internationally in those days, and they had a very enterprising Norwegian branch.

00:10:48.673 --> 00:10:54.520
So I went to see the manager there and I said, you should make an album, an LP with Tommy Riley.

00:10:54.561 --> 00:11:04.212
And of course, by that time, Tommy was already a household name in Norway, very popular through his concerts and his television shows and broadcasts and so forth.

00:11:04.754 --> 00:11:17.230
So I managed to set up this recording in Oslo in 1967, which was the first time he actually used his silver harmonica on a recording.

00:11:17.601 --> 00:11:34.307
The LP was called Colors of My Life, included some wonderful new songs written by David, Tommy's son, who at that time was collaborating very closely with a very popular Australian group, The Seekers.

00:11:35.128 --> 00:11:46.625
Judith Durham, who was the lead singer in The Seekers, she co-wrote with David some wonderful songs, including the title track of Tommy's LP, Colors of My Life.

00:11:59.905 --> 00:12:08.182
So we made it so that one side of the LP was sort of pop music and the other side was classical.

00:12:08.422 --> 00:12:16.418
So it ranged from David and Judith's new songs to music by Bach on the other side with string quartet.

00:12:16.958 --> 00:12:26.711
This was the first time that Polydor Norway managed to sell one of their products to Polydor International headquarters in Hamburg.

00:12:26.770 --> 00:12:30.696
So Colours of My Life was getting a world release.

00:12:31.616 --> 00:12:45.134
I think that was one of the things that prompted Tommy to say that he was at that time doing a lot of correspondence himself with all the different contacts he had in Europe.

00:12:45.215 --> 00:12:50.322
He was doing lots of concerts, broadcasts and television shows all over Europe.

00:12:50.785 --> 00:12:53.288
He said, I can't keep up with all this myself.

00:12:53.769 --> 00:13:04.985
You know, I'd like you to look after this for me, having seen that we were able to make this LP, which was becoming so successful.

00:13:05.245 --> 00:13:06.307
That's how it all started.

00:13:06.346 --> 00:13:24.979
And he said, it's much better for you to do it because, he said, as a personal manager, It's very rare to find somebody who actually understands the music and understands the instrument, because by that time I was well on my way to making quite a successful career myself as a player.

00:13:25.500 --> 00:13:25.700
Yeah.

00:13:26.442 --> 00:13:32.052
And you recorded an album with Tommy in 1976 called Music for Two Harmonicas.

00:13:32.513 --> 00:13:33.014
That's right.

00:13:33.053 --> 00:13:35.038
Yeah.

00:13:48.706 --> 00:13:53.313
He invited me to go with him on his tours on the continent.

00:13:53.333 --> 00:14:00.826
You know, I traveled with him throughout Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway.

00:14:01.388 --> 00:14:09.201
All those trips he was teaching me as, you know, in between times when we got to a hotel or wherever we were staying.

00:14:09.889 --> 00:14:14.094
It all started with these duet things when we were in Berlin.

00:14:14.614 --> 00:14:18.477
Tommy did a lot of work in West Berlin for the radio there.

00:14:18.738 --> 00:14:30.269
And the conductor of the radio orchestra in Rias, Berlin, was Frid Walter, a very, very fine composer who had already written some great pieces for Tommy.

00:14:30.288 --> 00:14:39.298
And he heard, one day he heard Tommy and myself playing together, Tommy giving me a lesson in the dressing room of the radio station.

00:14:39.809 --> 00:14:42.600
That prompted him to write a piece for us.

00:14:42.679 --> 00:14:51.471
He wrote a piece called Duettino for two harmonicas and orchestra, which we recorded in Berlin with the Berlin Radio Orchestra in 1969.

00:15:10.913 --> 00:15:19.303
And then I made my first solo album in Norway a few years later, because Tommy said, I think we should make an LP together.

00:15:19.345 --> 00:15:30.918
But he said, first, you should make your own LP to sort of establish yourself as a recording artist, not just being sort of helped by me, he said.

00:15:30.979 --> 00:15:35.384
So I made my first solo LP in 1975.

00:15:35.404 --> 00:15:39.429
And then the year after, 1976, we made...

00:15:39.970 --> 00:15:42.556
the album which you mentioned, Music for Two Harmonicas.

00:15:43.017 --> 00:15:52.158
And so you knew, obviously, Tommy, you know, to the end of his life, and you appeared with him in 1999 at a music festival in England, so right up to near the end there.

00:15:52.259 --> 00:15:53.019
Oh, yeah, yes.

00:15:53.240 --> 00:15:55.846
Well, it was, as I said, it was like family.

00:15:55.866 --> 00:15:58.673
A very happy association in every way.

00:15:59.042 --> 00:16:00.003
So fantastic.

00:16:00.023 --> 00:16:00.224
Yes.

00:16:00.283 --> 00:16:00.803
So great.

00:16:00.823 --> 00:16:04.929
You had all that time with Tommy and clearly he taught you a lot and shaped your playing.

00:16:04.970 --> 00:16:07.854
I mean, any comments on, you know, what you learned from him?

00:16:07.933 --> 00:16:12.059
And, you know, obviously he was a, you know, a monster of a chromatic player, right?

00:16:12.100 --> 00:16:14.101
So what did he do for your playing?

00:16:14.663 --> 00:16:24.035
Well, I think the whole attitude towards music was one of the main things, you know, because he always said music comes first.

00:16:24.456 --> 00:16:26.879
If you're making music, that is the main thing.

00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:32.619
And the harmonica, is your vehicle to make music the way you feel about it.

00:16:32.798 --> 00:16:35.942
And music is not just notes.

00:16:36.643 --> 00:16:38.245
It's emotion and feeling.

00:16:38.264 --> 00:16:51.120
And harmonica is a great instrument to express yourself because, as we know, it's the only instrument which is played both by inhaling and exhaling, blowing and drawing.

00:16:51.520 --> 00:16:53.163
So it's like part of your breath.

00:16:53.864 --> 00:16:55.405
So it's a very personal instrument.

00:16:55.525 --> 00:16:58.009
And that's one of the things that Tommy always...

00:16:58.881 --> 00:17:06.692
maintained that you should make it as a part of your own body and your own personality.

00:17:06.732 --> 00:17:09.096
And then, of course, the technical side of it.

00:17:09.877 --> 00:17:19.550
He had gone into developing this technique in a very profound and deep way during his time during the war, when he was a prisoner of war.

00:17:19.612 --> 00:17:22.615
So, personality, tone quality, and...

00:17:24.450 --> 00:17:36.347
Joining notes together, getting the smoothness, the change between blowing and drawing so smooth that the listener shouldn't be able to tell whether you're blowing or drawing.

00:17:37.348 --> 00:17:40.554
Moving from one note to the next one seamlessly.

00:17:40.594 --> 00:17:45.922
So control, breath control, movement, musical shape and form.

00:17:46.561 --> 00:17:55.696
And how to practice, all those things were essential in the way I was sort of developing and growing as a musician.

00:17:56.198 --> 00:18:00.223
So fortunate for you to have lessons with one of the best, yeah?

00:18:00.263 --> 00:18:04.130
So obviously it's reflected in your own playing.

00:18:04.190 --> 00:18:06.954
So, I mean, you'd mentioned there about how to practice.

00:18:06.994 --> 00:18:09.018
So what about a comment on that?

00:18:09.038 --> 00:18:13.766
I mean, how have you practiced through the years to develop your tremendous technique and tone yourself?

00:18:14.306 --> 00:18:21.636
Well, it's based a lot on the fundamentals of moving from one note to the next and concentration.

00:18:21.676 --> 00:18:34.476
When you're learning a new piece, for instance, to make sure that you work on the bits which are the most difficult parts of the piece, you know.

00:18:34.497 --> 00:18:45.582
And also I have learned a lot from all the fantastic musicians that I have worked with not only here in Norway, but, you know, through my career elsewhere.

00:18:45.602 --> 00:19:12.497
I've been very fortunate in having some excellent musicians as partners in duo for harmonica and piano, and also I've done a lot of work with two of Norway's finest classical organists, which was something which I don't know of many people who had tried that before, to use harmonica and pipe organ in duo.

00:19:13.358 --> 00:19:18.688
So I have been very fortunate, as I said, in mixing with the right people.

00:19:19.048 --> 00:19:24.277
Yeah, and on that, so you released an album in 2010 called Harm Organ, which is a harmonica organ.

00:19:24.538 --> 00:19:27.762
So this is a pipe organ, yeah, which is a sort of church organ.

00:19:27.883 --> 00:19:28.144
It's a

00:19:28.183 --> 00:19:29.586
church organ, yeah, huge.

00:19:29.746 --> 00:19:31.670
I mean, it was sort of a...

00:19:32.001 --> 00:19:39.540
publicity thing from the record company they said the world's smallest and the world's largest instrument heard together

00:19:39.560 --> 00:20:10.948
and there's a video of you playing um so i'll put it i'll put the link on and people can check it out but yeah it's a great interesting sound with that combination and How did you go about amplifying the small chromatic against the gigantic pipe organ?

00:20:11.521 --> 00:20:15.227
Well, of course, that is very important to get the balance right.

00:20:15.267 --> 00:20:34.632
So whenever we play concerts, obviously, I use a good condenser microphone and make sure that the organist has a speaker near where he is so that he can hear me, because also the distances in the churches can be a problem with the delays and so forth.

00:20:34.951 --> 00:20:38.877
Well, that is something that with modern technology, it's possible to do it.

00:20:39.394 --> 00:20:39.773
So great.

00:20:39.814 --> 00:20:42.016
So we started talking about your recording career now.

00:20:42.036 --> 00:20:43.037
So let's continue with that.

00:20:43.096 --> 00:20:46.480
So I think you touched on already, you clearly played some classical music.

00:20:46.500 --> 00:20:47.901
You played with orchestras a lot.

00:20:48.301 --> 00:20:50.864
So the Norwegian Radio Orchestra you've mentioned.

00:20:51.223 --> 00:20:52.826
You play kind of popular music.

00:20:52.865 --> 00:20:57.490
And another thing you've done a lot is to play sort of Norwegian and sort of folk music, which is great.

00:20:57.509 --> 00:20:59.411
I love it, the harmonica in these different settings.

00:20:59.471 --> 00:21:04.496
So tell us a little bit about playing the sort of Norwegian folk music on the chromatic.

00:21:04.836 --> 00:21:08.558
Well, as I said, my father was an amateur musician.

00:21:09.140 --> 00:21:11.884
His brother, my uncle, Eivind Groven.

00:21:12.404 --> 00:21:21.258
He was one of Norway's foremost classical composers and also very knowledgeable about our traditional folk music.

00:21:21.759 --> 00:21:44.308
Both my father and Eivind, his brother, my uncle, played the traditional Norwegian folk instrument, the hardanger fiddle, which is like a violin, but it has four underlying strings, four sympathetic strings, which makes for a very full and resonant sound, quite different from ordinary violin.

00:21:44.869 --> 00:21:45.971
So I grew up with that.

00:21:46.010 --> 00:21:50.676
I never played violin myself, but it's been part of my upbringing.

00:21:51.417 --> 00:21:53.000
And my mother, she used to sing.

00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:57.605
She had a lovely soprano voice, and my brother was very much into music too.

00:21:57.644 --> 00:22:01.534
So That was part of my upbringing, as it were.

00:22:01.574 --> 00:22:09.763
With Norwegian music, obviously our great national composer, Edvard Grieg, has always been a favourite of mine.

00:22:10.065 --> 00:22:17.253
And like many of the composers of his generation in Europe, they based a lot of their music on folk music.

00:22:17.994 --> 00:22:24.142
If you look around, you can take Dvořák in Bohemia, in Czechoslovakia.

00:22:24.702 --> 00:22:26.826
You have Tchaikovsky, Brahms.

00:22:27.329 --> 00:22:28.612
Bartok in Hungary.

00:22:28.652 --> 00:22:33.519
All those great composers had this folk music inspiration.

00:22:34.280 --> 00:22:40.210
So that's a natural part of my musical background, as it were.

00:22:41.092 --> 00:22:47.441
And you released an album, a Greek album in 2007, where you're doing interpretations with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

00:22:47.461 --> 00:22:48.442
Yes, that's right.

00:22:50.286 --> 00:22:50.365
Yeah.

00:23:01.506 --> 00:23:12.359
And also, recently, these last few years, I've collaborated with the greatest fiddle player of his generation in Norway, Knut Buen.

00:23:12.401 --> 00:23:17.307
We made two albums together, first an instrumental with harmonica and hard range fiddle.

00:23:17.847 --> 00:23:19.569
I don't think it's been ever done before.

00:23:19.670 --> 00:23:24.336
It's a very unusual combination, but we found that it actually works.

00:23:24.396 --> 00:23:31.286
So we used a lot of traditional folk music for that, and then later we wrote a lot of songs together because he is...

00:23:31.809 --> 00:23:42.005
He's such a multi-talented artist, so he wrote some wonderful lyrics where he asked me whether I could make music.

00:23:42.586 --> 00:23:44.848
So I wrote melodies, and we had two singers.

00:23:44.868 --> 00:23:45.630
Was

00:23:45.670 --> 00:23:46.131
that first

00:23:46.211 --> 00:23:47.452
album The Sound of Telemark?

00:23:47.732 --> 00:23:50.636
The first album was The Sound of Telemark, which is an instrumental album.

00:24:04.481 --> 00:24:12.275
And the second one is called Kjenslevev, which actually means like a tapestry of emotion, which is mostly songs.

00:24:18.625 --> 00:24:21.309
Kvar vårdlige vänder

00:24:27.905 --> 00:24:38.186
And as I said, all those musicians like Iver Kleive, who I made the Harm Organ album with, and Ivar Anton Vågaard, who is one of Norway's most prominent pianists.

00:24:38.346 --> 00:24:42.796
We have worked together now for 35, almost 40 years.

00:24:59.746 --> 00:25:06.594
Working with people like that has been tremendous inspiration, and also another organist, Kåre Nordstoga, who plays on my Greek album.

00:25:07.295 --> 00:25:11.618
My recording career has also comprised a lot of popular music.

00:25:12.119 --> 00:25:15.443
A very fine Norwegian composer I've worked with a lot, called Henning Sommero.

00:25:15.864 --> 00:25:23.853
My recording of his most famous song called Vårdsøg, which means something like breath of spring or spring yearning.

00:25:41.890 --> 00:25:44.352
become almost like a standard in Norway.

00:25:44.372 --> 00:25:50.257
It was used as a signature tune for the most popular request program on Norwegian radio for years.

00:25:50.477 --> 00:25:51.458
So everybody knows it.

00:25:51.518 --> 00:25:56.423
So that's one of the pieces, the most requested pieces that I always include in my concerts.

00:25:56.823 --> 00:26:14.163
And the same composer Henning Sommro, he also wrote a wonderful concertino for Harmonica and Orchestra for me, which is now on the album of his works, which has just been nominated for a Fantastic.

00:26:14.183 --> 00:26:16.894
So we'll see what's going to happen there.

00:26:17.194 --> 00:26:20.025
So this is The Borders album, released in 2023, yeah?

00:26:20.465 --> 00:26:20.968
That's right.

00:26:35.842 --> 00:26:38.707
Do you get a Grammy if that wins a Grammy, or is that just a Henning?

00:26:39.166 --> 00:26:50.546
Well, I think it's also the actual sound, the recording itself, because it's the man who also recorded our Harmorgan record.

00:26:50.605 --> 00:27:00.402
He's done a wonderful job of what they call immersive recording, where you actually feel that it's like surround stereo in a way.

00:27:00.705 --> 00:27:12.957
So I think if it wins the Grammy, which it is nominated for, it will be both for Morten Lindberg, who recorded it, and for Henning, who wrote the music, and for us performers.

00:27:13.017 --> 00:27:20.603
You know, there's Henning's violin concerto and a concerto also for hand flute and orchestra, and then the harmonica work.

00:27:20.884 --> 00:27:24.185
So we'll all share it, if it wins.

00:27:25.406 --> 00:27:27.288
Well, a nomination is great in itself.

00:27:27.368 --> 00:27:28.089
Yeah, it is.

00:27:28.769 --> 00:27:30.432
And of course, you've done various...

00:27:30.672 --> 00:27:58.326
concertos for harmonica you've done the the the hi to Villa Loba Swan and and various other ones yeah so it's something obviously playing big orchestral pieces How do you approach that, playing that on the chromatic harmonica?

00:27:58.807 --> 00:28:02.394
Well, again, it's the heritage of Tommy Riley.

00:28:02.954 --> 00:28:18.280
Tommy, Larry Adler, John Sebastian, those were the three players of that generation who actually got those works, actually inspired some of the great composers of the day to write serious concertos for harmonica.

00:28:18.753 --> 00:28:25.963
So I find it very rewarding to study and learn those pieces, obviously.

00:28:26.753 --> 00:28:37.462
they're quite demanding to play, so you really have to devote a lot of time and patience to learn them and to play them well.

00:28:37.824 --> 00:28:48.752
But I've been very fortunate in getting the opportunity to play these works with some very fine orchestras, not only here in Norway, but in other countries as well.

00:28:49.374 --> 00:28:59.143
Yeah, and talking of which, so I got here, I think, in 1990, you played at Carnegie Hall, and I think one of the few what harmonica plays to have a play at Carnegie Hall?

00:28:59.502 --> 00:29:02.405
Well, that was obviously a big thing, you know.

00:29:02.886 --> 00:29:22.346
We did a tour in the US with two of my great musical associates, Ivar Anton Vogel, who I mentioned before, who's a wonderful pianist, and also Kjetil Bjerkestrand, who is one of the finest exponents of using modern keyboards, synthesizers and so forth.

00:29:22.468 --> 00:29:28.659
So we travelled across the US and We did Carnegie Hall.

00:29:28.699 --> 00:29:34.921
We did also concerts in San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C.

00:29:35.241 --> 00:29:38.292
So it was quite a strenuous tour.

00:29:38.690 --> 00:29:40.813
but obviously a great experience.

00:29:41.354 --> 00:29:43.056
Was that the first time you toured in the US?

00:29:43.576 --> 00:29:44.337
No, it wasn't.

00:29:44.837 --> 00:29:49.364
My first tour in the US was 1981, I think.

00:29:50.566 --> 00:29:52.568
And then I also did some...

00:29:53.309 --> 00:30:00.798
I became very friendly with a fantastic American conductor, Gordon Wright, who heard me here in Norway.

00:30:00.839 --> 00:30:05.465
He was then the professor and conductor in Alaska.

00:30:05.865 --> 00:30:08.470
So he invited me to play with him with...

00:30:08.769 --> 00:30:11.352
the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra in Alaska.

00:30:11.372 --> 00:30:15.955
That was 1983 or 4 or something, I think.

00:30:16.175 --> 00:30:19.398
And also the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra.

00:30:20.220 --> 00:30:27.346
And then I was invited by the conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in Texas because he had heard me.

00:30:27.425 --> 00:30:29.607
I did a lot of work on cruise ships.

00:30:29.748 --> 00:30:33.250
I played concerts with my pianist on the ships.

00:30:33.692 --> 00:30:53.510
And you never know who's in the audience because after one of those cruise concerts I had an invitation from this quiet American who I remembered him because he'd come up to me after my cruise concert, thanked me for the concert, and he asked me for my address and phone number.

00:30:54.070 --> 00:31:00.198
And I never thought much about it until he contacted me and said, would you like to come and play with my orchestra in Dallas?

00:31:01.459 --> 00:31:08.165
So I played the Villa Lobos concerto and some of my own stuff and Gordon Jacobs' five pieces and so forth.

00:31:08.609 --> 00:31:13.713
I did a lot of work in America in the 80s and 90s and the early from the year 2000.

00:31:14.055 --> 00:31:24.463
Not so much recently because in one of my most exciting experiences during the last couple of decades has been all my concerts in Asia, in East Asia.

00:31:24.844 --> 00:31:25.924
Yes, it tells about those.

00:31:25.964 --> 00:31:27.066
Yeah, obviously you've been in Asia a lot.

00:31:27.086 --> 00:31:29.827
You played at the Asia Pacific Festival as well.

00:31:29.867 --> 00:31:32.651
Yeah, so you've spent a lot of time there as well, yeah?

00:31:33.010 --> 00:31:33.771
I have, yes.

00:31:34.011 --> 00:31:37.474
I think my first visit to Asia was 1995.

00:31:38.576 --> 00:32:22.182
when the World Harmonica Festival was held in Yokohama in Japan so I was invited to play a concert at the festival there and also to be an adjudicator in the competitions and the winner of the solo chromatic category was none other than Shima Kobayashi so that's when I first met Shima and after that of course she went to study with Tommy in England so that was my first time and in In Yokohama, I met many talented Asian players, and outstanding for me among them, apart from Shima, was the King's Harmonica Quintet from Hong Kong.

00:32:22.481 --> 00:32:33.153
Because what they did, they played chamber music on five harmonicas, almost like a string quartet, which was something quite staggering the way they did it.

00:32:47.074 --> 00:32:56.428
And we became great friends, and they invited me and Ivar Anton Vorgård, my pianist, to come to play with them in Hong Kong, which we did.

00:32:56.448 --> 00:33:00.733
1998, I think it must have been.

00:33:00.773 --> 00:33:12.592
And also, I did a tour of Japan with Tommy's first Japanese student, Joe Sakimoto, who was Shima Kobayashi's first teacher.

00:33:13.032 --> 00:33:16.357
And then in 2001, I had a phone call from...

00:33:16.865 --> 00:33:21.574
the man who runs the record company I record for in Norway called Grappa.

00:33:22.095 --> 00:33:25.200
He said, we have to go to South Korea.

00:33:25.240 --> 00:33:26.662
And I said, what do you mean?

00:33:26.701 --> 00:33:27.903
Why?

00:33:27.923 --> 00:33:32.491
He said, because your album is now in the charts in South Korea.

00:33:33.874 --> 00:33:40.905
He had made a deal with a local Korean company to release some of my albums there.

00:33:41.314 --> 00:33:43.439
And they were so successful.

00:33:43.519 --> 00:33:53.500
So Helge Westby of Grappa and myself, we went to Korea in the year 2001 to promote my records there.

00:33:53.660 --> 00:33:57.929
And a few years later, I was invited to do a concert tour there, which...

00:33:58.498 --> 00:34:05.845
I did, and Ivar Anton and myself, we went practically every year up until the pandemic.

00:34:06.085 --> 00:34:12.371
From then on, it's been all different, of course, but we had some fantastic tours in South Korea.

00:34:12.411 --> 00:34:24.822
And one day after one of my concerts there, there was a young South Korean who came up and said, he thanked me for the concert, and he said, is it possible to have a lesson from you?

00:34:24.842 --> 00:34:31.496
I thought that, well, he seemed a very keen, enthusiastic and nice young man.

00:34:31.577 --> 00:34:35.501
So he came to my hotel room and I gave him a lesson.

00:34:36.242 --> 00:34:43.389
And from then on, every year I went there, he continued to study with me during my short stays in South Korea.

00:34:43.931 --> 00:34:51.599
And then he asked whether it would be possible to continue on a more permanent level.

00:34:51.960 --> 00:34:53.842
And this is Yoon Seok-li.

00:34:54.114 --> 00:35:00.443
Who applied to study at the Norwegian Academy of Music with me.

00:35:00.463 --> 00:35:01.505
And he did.

00:35:01.525 --> 00:35:03.268
And he did a super job.

00:35:03.327 --> 00:35:08.335
He was here for two years and did a super job as a player.

00:35:08.576 --> 00:35:12.782
And he's now a very successful professional player in South Korea.

00:35:13.083 --> 00:35:14.364
And not only South Korea.

00:35:14.706 --> 00:35:16.148
Right now I think he's in America.

00:35:19.994 --> 00:35:20.094
Music

00:35:30.498 --> 00:35:38.768
fantastic great stuff yeah so you played all around the world amazing what the uh where the harmonica's taking you how do you reflect on that when you think about it i certainly do i

00:35:40.132 --> 00:35:40.815
the harmonica has

00:35:40.896 --> 00:35:41.317
been my

00:35:41.458 --> 00:35:42.420
passport to the world

00:35:43.266 --> 00:35:48.911
And so another album we'll just touch on before we move on is the Here, There and Everywhere album.

00:35:49.070 --> 00:35:49.550
Oh, yeah.

00:35:49.931 --> 00:35:53.655
Which works for harmonica and orchestra by Sir George Martin.

00:35:53.695 --> 00:35:56.376
Of course, lots of Lennon and Courtney Beatles songs.

00:35:56.436 --> 00:35:58.478
So tell us about that album.

00:35:58.798 --> 00:36:14.632
Well, that was a big thrill for me to be able to make that album because George Martin, to cut a long story short, he started out as a record producer as a young man and one of his very first artists was Tommy Riley.

00:36:14.873 --> 00:36:16.655
Now we're going back to 1950.

00:36:17.056 --> 00:36:18.938
So they became, they were great friends.

00:36:19.177 --> 00:36:27.246
And after a long time, he came back to Tommy and wrote some wonderful works for Harmonica and Orchestra for Tommy.

00:36:28.148 --> 00:36:35.094
One of them, a short piece Tommy recorded in the, I think 1985 on his album Serenade.

00:36:35.335 --> 00:36:54.518
But the other work, Three American Sketches, Tommy played it a lot throughout Europe in concerts and on radio, but he actually never made a commercial And when Tommy, unfortunately, left us, passed away in the year 2000, I mean, I had made a great friendship with George Martin through Tommy, of course.

00:36:54.538 --> 00:37:03.349
I was very pleased when George said, would you be interested in recording my three American sketches so we can get it out on a commercial record?

00:37:03.681 --> 00:37:05.103
So obviously I was delighted.

00:37:05.123 --> 00:37:07.947
I recorded it with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

00:37:08.389 --> 00:37:17.360
At that time, a young, very enterprising English conductor by the name of John Wilson, who I had met in London a few years before.

00:37:17.400 --> 00:37:25.572
Nowadays, of course, John Wilson is one of the hottest and most sought-after conductors in the world.

00:37:25.713 --> 00:37:31.240
He's a very prolific recording artist, and every year he does...

00:37:32.034 --> 00:37:38.487
a concert at the Proms at the Albert Hall, and I think his concert is the one which is sold out before anything else.

00:37:38.947 --> 00:37:50.873
So anyway, John came over to Oslo to conduct the Norwegian Radio Orchestra for me when I made the recording of George Martin's Three American Sketches, also his Dagietto.

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
.

00:38:06.849 --> 00:38:11.034
and his arrangements of some London McCartney songs.

00:38:11.614 --> 00:38:12.494
So that was a big thrill.

00:38:13.036 --> 00:38:17.380
Okay, yeah, so we've talked through numerous of your albums and various things you've done.

00:38:17.420 --> 00:38:18.740
You've done lots of albums.

00:38:18.780 --> 00:38:22.204
I think you've got 36 albums released to your name, is that right?

00:38:22.804 --> 00:38:24.286
Yeah, something like that, I think, yeah.

00:38:24.746 --> 00:38:28.690
Yeah, so amazing recording career, and they say you've travelled all around the world.

00:38:35.777 --> 00:38:35.998
MUSIC PLAYS

00:38:36.898 --> 00:38:44.244
Hey everybody, you're listening to Neil Warren's Harmonica Happy Hour podcast, proudly sponsored by Tom Halcheck and Blue Moon Harmonicas.

00:38:44.784 --> 00:38:48.927
This is Jason Ritchie here telling you I love Blue Moon Harmonicas.

00:38:49.028 --> 00:38:56.494
I love the combs, the covers, the custom harps, the refurbished pre-war marine bands, and nobody's easier to work with than Tom Halcheck.

00:38:56.695 --> 00:39:00.798
Check them out, www.bluemoonharmonicas.com.

00:39:01.159 --> 00:39:05.663
You've also been involved in a Norwegian harmonica club, sort of equivalent, I think, is it to spawn?

00:39:05.702 --> 00:39:09.346
What was the harmonica uk club in the uk is that something you've been involved with

00:39:09.907 --> 00:39:35.135
oh definitely yeah as a matter of fact this summer we it's going to be 40 years since we had the first harmonica workshop 1985 because by that time i mean tommy riley and myself we did a whole series of programs about the harmonica on norwegian television called munspil forum where we were teaching the harmonica were five programs.

00:39:35.255 --> 00:39:39.061
We had two students in the studio whom we were teaching.

00:39:39.621 --> 00:39:47.231
And from then on, there were so many players around Norway who kept contacting me by letter in those days.

00:39:47.251 --> 00:39:49.253
It was before internet, of course.

00:39:49.534 --> 00:39:56.503
And when I did my tours in Norway, I always had people come up to me and, you know, ask for lessons and so forth.

00:39:56.603 --> 00:39:59.608
And of course, Tommy was going back and forth to Norway all the time.

00:39:59.688 --> 00:40:06.356
So there was this idea from some of these very keen players that we should try to organize some kind of workshop.

00:40:06.936 --> 00:40:27.081
And in 1985, Tommy was invited to be a soloist at a big concert in a town two and a half hours north of Oslo to be featured as a soloist with the Norwegian Youth Symphony Orchestra playing the Spivakovsky Concerto.

00:40:27.489 --> 00:40:40.985
So some of these keen young Norwegian players, they said this could be a good opportunity to set up sort of like a seminar or a workshop with Tommy and me as the teachers.

00:40:41.025 --> 00:40:42.106
And we did.

00:40:42.146 --> 00:40:44.489
And that was the start.

00:40:45.030 --> 00:40:51.838
From then on, there's been every year during the summer, sometime June, July or August, we've had seminars.

00:40:52.034 --> 00:40:55.139
these workshops every year in different parts of Norway.

00:40:55.159 --> 00:41:08.938
And a very important part of the whole thing here is that, which we can probably get into later, the Norwegian harmonica maker Georg Polderstad, who makes the most fantastic chromatic harmonicas in the world.

00:41:09.900 --> 00:41:16.911
He was part of this group of players who wanted to learn more about the instrument.

00:41:16.990 --> 00:41:29.266
So in 1987, I think it was, The organization, which is called NMF, Norwegian Harmonica Forum, was started.

00:41:29.306 --> 00:41:37.617
Since then, every year we've had these summer workshops, summer seminars with concerts and teaching and a very happy atmosphere.

00:41:37.677 --> 00:41:46.067
And apart from all the Norwegian players, we've had guests coming from just about everywhere all over the world.

00:41:46.126 --> 00:41:48.148
We had a player from Australia come once.

00:41:48.309 --> 00:41:51.614
We've had people from Taiwan, Hong Kong.

00:41:52.065 --> 00:41:56.291
Korea, England, Germany, France, America.

00:41:56.331 --> 00:41:58.094
It's been very successful.

00:41:58.295 --> 00:42:03.601
And of course, there's been my best Norwegian student, Tore Reppe.

00:42:04.063 --> 00:42:14.637
He was the first Norwegian to actually major in the harmonica at the music academy near his hometown in Trondheim.

00:42:15.041 --> 00:42:21.952
In the 1980s, he had been studying with me for three or four years, and he went on to become world champion.

00:42:22.153 --> 00:42:34.775
He won the solo category chromatic in 1987 at the big festival in the island of Jersey in the British Channel, which was organized, as we all know, by Jimmy Hughes.

00:42:34.875 --> 00:42:41.405
Jimmy Hughes did a fantastic job there and put together a wonderful festival and a great competition.

00:42:41.793 --> 00:42:46.547
Yeah, I had to talk about that very festival with Jim on the first interview I did with him.

00:42:46.606 --> 00:42:49.755
So your 1987 festival was a real milestone, wasn't it?

00:42:50.097 --> 00:42:50.858
Oh, fantastic.

00:42:51.059 --> 00:42:51.521
Fantastic.

00:42:51.561 --> 00:42:52.684
And you were there, of course.

00:42:52.945 --> 00:42:53.686
Yes, I was there.

00:42:53.726 --> 00:43:08.766
Oh! Everybody was there.

00:43:09.467 --> 00:43:09.887
And I

00:43:09.949 --> 00:43:16.516
think that was probably the finest jury they've ever had for any competition.

00:43:16.577 --> 00:43:18.579
Because in the jury, are you ready?

00:43:18.619 --> 00:43:19.480
Yeah.

00:43:20.001 --> 00:43:26.027
Tommy Riley, James Moody, Pete Peterson, Jerry Murad, and Helmut Herold.

00:43:26.568 --> 00:43:26.768
Yeah.

00:43:28.251 --> 00:43:28.952
All great names

00:43:29.032 --> 00:43:29.592
in the harmonica world.

00:43:29.672 --> 00:43:30.974

Sigmund Groven interview

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