Garnås, Per Anders Buen

Even at an early age, Per Anders Buen Garnås was an excellent fiddler with a vast repertoire of fiddle tunes. He grew up with fiddling and singing in his home and among his family members, and is the son of the renowned folksinger Agnes Buen Garnås. Teachers and sources of inspiration have been his uncles Knut and Hauk Buen, Bjarne Herrefoss, Einar Løndal, Eivind Mo, Sveinung Dalen, Gunnar Innleggen, Anund Roheim, Hallvard T. Bjørgum and Olav K. Øyaland, who was his teacher when he studied at the School for Instrumental Studies at the Ole Bull Academy (1998-2000). He also studied under Knut Buen while at the Academy. In 1999 he competed in the most difficult category, A, at the National Contest for Traditional Music, as the youngest performer ever in that category, and he won first prize in 2003. He is a four-time winner of the Fanitull Competition at the Norwegian Folk Music Week in Ål. Per Anders Buen Garnås has been a member of the groups Åtte Potte (1998-2001) and Hått (1997). He is also involved in several concert programmes, including Salme,segn og solbøn with his sister Ingvill Marit Buen Garnås, Draumkvedet with his mother Agnes Buen Garnås, Åleine with his mother and dancer Ingebjørg Vesaas, and a Hardanger fiddle concert with Daniel Sandén-Warg. He has composed a number of fiddle tunes, and in 2006 he was among those invited to compose fiddle tunes for a concert of commissioned music at the Årinn Festival in Kristiansand. He has been engaged in extensive concert activities throughout the world during the past ten years, and has taught music at a school for the arts in Tinn. Per Anders Buen Garnås also writes, and has had a large number of articles published in various journals. He has been the editor of the folk music magazine Kvinten since the autumn of 2006. He is currently working on albums together with Daniel Sandén-Warg and Hått, and on a recording of the programme “Salme, segn og solbøn”.

Discography

2001: Åleine (Nyrenning)
2002: Han rider den mørke natt, together with Agnes Buen Garnås (Via Music)
2003: På Grønalihei, together with Ingvill Marit Buen Garnås (Nyrenning)

Awards

1998: Øivind Bergh Memorial Award
2001: Nominated for a Spellemannspris (Norwegian Grammy) for Åleine
2002: Telemark Scholarship

This biography was produced by the Norwegian Traditional Music Agency.