Ola Bøe

Ola Bøe was a Norwegian fiddler. Ola Bøe was born in Vestre Slidre Municipality in Christians amt, Norway, the son of Per Person Bøe and Rangdi Jakobsdotter. His father played the Hardanger fiddle but died when Ola was twelve years old. As a result, he learned many tunes from his mother, who was good at humming dance tunes. He also learned tunes from his elder brother Jørgen, and considered himself a student of Andris Øde, Alf Moe, and Olav Moe. Bøe moved to Oslo in 1935 and soon became an important fiddler in the folk music scene there. For many years, he regularly played with the Valdres Fiddling Group and was also active in the Folk Music Association. The fiddlers that came to learn from him included Bernt Balchen Jr., Trygve Bolstad, and Harald Røine. He had a personal style of playing, and often used a homemade fiddle. He was considered a very talented dance fiddler, although it could take some time for him to really get warmed up. He knew many old tunes played using less common tunings, and he played in an older style. He also used a fingering technique that was difficult to imitate. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ola_Bøe) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)