Rättviks Spelmanslag

The Rättvik Fiddler Group was founded in November 1944 at a gathering in Rättvik Folk Park. In the beginning the fiddlers practiced once a month. At the first meeting about 60 fiddlers were invited and included legendary fiddlers Pers Erik, Pål Olle and SäbbJohn.
Sparv Anders was the first company leader and conductor.
He introduced the condition for membership "That one felt a need to play folktunes". This aim and condition is what is required for membership to this day!
Radio and LP recordings
1948 was to be a very special year. When the rally for the provincial Fiddlers Association (Dalarnas Spelmansförbund) was held in Malung, Matts Arnberg from Swedish Radio succeeded in getting his chief producer to make a live recording of a large group of fiddlers
The Rättviks Spelmanslag.
The broadcast of this recording took place on August 25 1948. Some of the tunes recorded and making a major success were: Gärdeby gånglåt, Bingsjövalsen and Bock Fars Polska. After this, the group recorded an LP with these tunes and added two more: Trettondagsmarschen and Kari Pers polska. These successes made the group well known throughout Sweden.
USA/Canada/France
In 1956 Erik Gudmundsson arranged the first tour to North America. The group visited "Swedish regions". A second major tour to America was made in 1979 A coast to coast tour. A combined tour to the "Fiddlers Festival" in Drummondville and Nova Scotia, Canada was made in 1987. In 1993 a trip was made to Gannat in France. Furthermore the Rättvik Fiddlergroup has a wide international exchange particularly with Kaustinen in Finland, Roskilde in Denmark and Røros in Norway and of course, Sweden's own big festival, Falun Folkmusic Festival.
Local folk festivals
The Rättviks Fiddlergroup became a major part of the local festivals: Music at Siljan from the end of the 1960´s, The Rättviks Folklore Festival from 1974, and from 1976, the Music in Summer Evening at Rättviks Church. The group plays a major part in the annual Midsummer Maypole festivities and of course many other community activities. In 1972 a new LP was recorded. In 1982 the group received the Rättviks Community Culture prize.
Our club house
Karlsviks Manor became a home with archives, rehearsing rooms etc. At last we could collect all our music notes, tapes, press cuttings and the fantastic Hans Börtas register over all fiddlers in the county of Rättvik. This collection will be moved to the new "House of Folkmusic" (Folkmusikens Hus) here in Rättvik.
Activities now
Today we have about 100 members and nearly half of these rehearse regularly every Tuesday in our present locality in the Church school, in the center of Rättvik. This will be a "House of Folkmusic" (Folkmusikens Hus) soon. Rättviks Fiddle Association is a voluntary organization working to promote music and folk culture through workshops., regular meetings, concerts and other performances. We celebrated our 50th anniversary in 1994 with a CD-recording (GCD-26 GIGA) - there you can read more about us.
Rättviks fiddlers play mostly tunes from Rättvik and Bingsjö, we like to play for folkdancers and like to inspire happiness in our dance public through our performance! The young fiddlers together with the old fiddlers create a profile and harmony and happiness in the learning which gives the best possibilities for recruiting new fiddlers for the future. Rättviks Fiddle Association is open to anyone who has love and passion for folkmusic and wishing to improve his/her playing under generous forms of learning and performing.
The conductors and leaders today are Petra Norgren and Christer Blank. The Chairman is Anders Säbb.