The year the Norwegian Jew’s Harp Forum gained 35 new members
Our chair Kyrre Matias Goksøyr of the Norwegian Mouth Harp Forum summarizes what has been a fantastic Jew’s harp year with a lot of activity and many new members.
2025 is drawing to a close and it’s been quite a year, writes our chair Kyrre Matias Goksøyr.
By Kyrre Matias Goksøyr
Translated by Lucy Moffatt
After a year online, NMF’s members’ magazine Munnharpa looks set to hit 2,000 unique visitors. Our articles have been read many times both inside Norway and well beyond its borders.
We’ve been active and have achieved a great deal:
Workshops and dance at Folkemusikkpøbb i Oslo
A weekend of music in Gjøvik in May
Workshops in Oslo, Sørumsand and at Young Friends of the Earth Norway’s summer camp on Utøya
The Jew’s Harp Festival at Romsdal Museum in Molde – this was the furthest west the festival had ever been held and it was very well attended
At the Klangen før fela festival in Oslo, which focuses on older traditional instruments, NMF’s Jew’s harp workshop had the highest number of participants by far compared with other instrumental workshops.
Kyrre Matias Goksøyr, Jim Erik Hoem Johansen and Bernhard Folkestad during the Klangen før fela festival at Riksscenen.
All this activity must have attracted people’s attention, because NMF gained 35 new members in 2025!
We’ve been busy behind the scenes too, getting to work on the follow-up to the legendary Fille-Vern album. We also enthusiastically applauded the launch of the Trondheim Jew’s Harp forum, which will be holding workshops in January 2026.
In 2025, NMF was admitted to FolkOrg – the Organization for Folk Music and Folk Dance – as a professional association.
Next year we look forward to the Jew’s harp festival going back to where it all began: the festival will take place in Fagernes, in association with Valdres Museum. Perhaps we’ll get even more use out of our workshop Jew’s harps in 2026!
Many thanks to everyone who has attended our events, and especially warm greetings to everyone who helped ensure that the events took place. Get in touch with us if you want to make something happen where you live. There wouldn’t have been a festival in Molde or a Jew’s harp forum in Trondheim without the efforts of local enthusiasts. If you want something to happen, you’re just the person to get things started.
Merry Christmas!