International Jew’s Harp Society
BOARD MEMBER
© Olga Prass
Svein Westad
Musician after my retirement in 2013. First played the Jew’s harp at the age of 16. Started to learn Norwegian traditional playing in 1990. First prizes at the National Contest of Traditional Music and Dance (Landskappleik) in 1999, 2000 and 2001. Attended the International Jew’s Harp Festivals since Molln, Austria in 1998. President of Norsk Munnharpeforum (Norwegian Jew’s Harp Forum) 1998-2008. Board member of the IJHS since 1998. Awarded as World Jew’s Harp Virtuoso in Yakutsk, 2011. Guest teacher on the Jew’s harp at the Nepal Music Centre, Kathmandu, 2009-2010.
After mastering techniques of the Jew’s harp playing, both in Norway and in various music cultures in Asia, I feel free to express my personal style, mixing some of the techniques when I play. It makes me able to improvise, and to express the sounds of nature and various moods they create in me.
CDs: “Munnharpas Verden” (The Jew’s Harp World) 2001. (John Wright, Tran Quang Hai, Leo Tadagawa and Svein Westad). “Meeting in the Mountains: Nepali and Norwegian Traditional Music.” 2008. (Durga Katiwada, Shyam Nepali, Jiwan Rai and Svein Westad). “Lament for Syria” 2015. (Jan Ibro Khelil, Syria. Ali Dinipour, Iran. Sanskriti Shrestha, Nepal. Steinar Ofsdal and Svein Westad, Norway.
