Here is more information ...

Two-Workshop PackageDates: October 19th & 26th, 2025Time: 10-11:30 AM Pacific / 1-2:30 PM EasternLocation: Zoom (We'll email the link to you before the workshops)Cost: $25 for both sessions – open to ANA members onlyAll instruments welcome!About the WorkshopDitte will explore the two main types of polska (eighth-note polskas and sixteenth-note polskas), in terms of both music and history. We will learn one of each type, and also work with some familiar tunes such as Båtsman Däck, Tierpspolskan, and Slängpolska efter Byss-Calle 32 (all can be found in our Box folder). She will also give pointers not only on how to hold the nyckelharpa in a more comfortable manner, but how to move in ways that utilize your resources in an optimal manner, so you don’t work too hard or possibly injure yourself. Ditte has generously agreed to make recordings available to workshop participants for later study. These will be for private use only, and absolutely not to be shared on any form of public media.About DitteDitte Andersson lives in Uppsala and works as a freelance musician. She has been a singer her entire life and, besides her main genre Swedish folk, also enjoys Scottish songs. Her instrumental career began when she learned piano at the age of 5, but at the age of nineteen she switched to playing folk music on nyckelharpa, and later also fiddle. She quickly became absorbed into the traditional music life of Uppland.From 1980-1986, Ditte studied at the Royal College of Music (Kungliga musikhögskolan) in Stockholm, where she also has been teaching part time. She plays and sings several different musical styles, and in several different contexts, for example, in the 36-member orchestra “La Banda Europa”, and the pan-Scandinavian trio “Huldrelokk”. Ditte became a Riksspelman in 1980 and has been awarded the Uplands spelmansförbund’s (musician’s association) gold medal.Ditte is very experienced in leading courses and workshops in playing nyckelharpa and fiddle, as well as singing. 1998 to 2019 she was one of the three main nyckelharpa and fiddle teachers at the one year course at ESI (Eric Sahlström-institutet), and this year she is back in this capacity.Ditte has particularly focused on the biomechanics of the nyckelharpa–that is, ways of holding and playing the nyckelharpa so that one can play in a more relaxed manner. She has done a study of this through the music college, and her paper (in Swedish) recommending further paths of study can be read on their website (in Swedish).Watch a video!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIKyuR2JUTk