Early years

is a vocal octett from Fredrikstad, Norway, focusing on traditional music from our own country and thereby searching for connections and cooperation with other cultures and countries. We were founded in 1994 as part of the local folkmusic comunity LurenFFF (Luren Fredrikstad Folkemusikk Forum) that, at the time, was arranging conserts and musikal events in Fredrikstad. Luren FFF was established in 1992, by the initiative of Richard Burgess, as a Place to have folkmusic events in Fredriksatd and it was located at Cafe Oscar at that time.

KorLuren 

1994

Korluren started as a project-choir for a christmas consert with the intention of using only norwegian folktunes as repertoire instead of traditional christmas carols, and performing them in a Norwegian folksinging tradition. The initiative was taken by Wenche Mortensen and Jon Buer.

The consert was held in Kråkerøy Church, Fredrikstad, on 21.12.94 With great success and 250 listeners. Berit Opheim (folksinger from Voss) and Knut Hamre (Hardingfele, Norwegian 8-stringed fiddle) partisipated in the consert and gave the consert a genuinity that we were unable to achieve by ourselves.

1994 - 1997

Several Christmas consert have been held after this first one, because the projectchoir was eager to continue what was started, and we decided to name the choire KorLuren, as part of Luren FFF. Consert were held at:

  • Methodist Church in Sarpsborg, 1994
  • Kråkerøy Church, 1995
  • St.Birgitta chatholic Church in Fredrikstad, 1996

Other folkmusic events was held at:

  • Gamlebyen, Fredrikstad, 1996, With the partisipation of Steinar Rygg and Knut Hamre, both wellknown hardingfiddle players.
  • Hvaler Church, 1997, With Geir Holm on saxophone and Dan Rene Dahl on churchorgan.

In between these conserts KorLuren had other minor gigs too in Fredrikstad and Østfold during this periode.

1997

We started a Project called "Folkemusikk langs Glomma" (Folkmusic along the Glomma river) in cooperation with Sven Nyhus (Fiddle player from Røros and a professor in folkmusic at "Norges MusikkHøyskole" (the Norwegian University of Music in Oslo). The goal of the project was dual. We wanted to look into the similarties of the traditional music along the longest river in Norway, Glomma, of which we live at the estuary and Røros located near the headwaters, and search for forgotten folkmusic from Our own area and bring it back in use. The Project ended up in a number of 6 conserts in 1998 - 1999 at:

  • Røros church
  • Rendalen chruch
  • Kongsvinger Church
  • Solnes gård, Skiptvedt (owned by Gudmund Groven, son of Eivind Groven)
  • Glemmen Gamle church
  • Berby Gård, Halden.

1999

We performed "Draumkvedet" at Kråkerøy Church, with Halvor Håkanes on the main vocal.

2000

Another Christmas consert was held at Kråkerøy Church together with Tomm Kritiansen, the Norwegian Broadcasting reporter in Africa and the Middle East, reading from his own book "Jesus - the man from Nazaret" in between Norwegian folktunes sung by KorLuren.

2001

We started working closely with Glåmos Spelemannslag. This musical Collaboration was initiated by our previous project about the traditional music along the Glomma River. As mentioned earlier, Korluren lives at the end of the river and Glåmos Spelemannslag at the river's origin. Our Cooperation was ongoing for several years. This project brought us to consert events both at Svalbard, Røros, Lofoten and Hitra.

2002

Cooperating with Tomm Kristiansen and Glåmos Spelemannslag we travelled, together with Jens Nyplass (Glåmos Spelemannslag), Jon Fylling (Greåker vgs) and Tormod Gangfløt (Østfold Fylkes Kulturseksjon), to Cape Town to further develop our folkmusical horizon and perspectives. In Cape Town we had musical interrelations and practice with the marimba group African Dream from Gogoletho Township. Among other things we partisipated in Tomm Kristiansen's wedding in the Church of Kayelitscha Township.

2003

Korluren i Lofoten - 2003Our New frienship with African Dream resulted in their visit in Norway, Fredriksatd and Røros this year. This was possible thanks to the hard work of Wench Mortensen and Marit Larsen (both members of KorLuren) and their contact with the South African Embassy in Oslo. This was creating a broader Norwegian-SouthAfrican view to the project and we also had a visit from South Africa of Dineo Dinale (Pretoria) and Renè Human (Johannesburg) which held a workshop in Fredrikstad on African traditional music an dansing. This year we also had a minitour in Lofoten, Norway, conserting at Reine Church, Flagstad Church and Kabelvåg Church. We had the pleasure and opportunity to sing for Kofi Annan (General Sekretary of UN at this time) and Kjell Magne Bondevik (prime minister of Norway, 2001-2005) in Svolvær.

In october we performed "Missa Campesina" together with Fredrikstad sangkor at Fredriksatd Domkirke (Cathedral).

 

Latest years (in Norvegian!)  

2004 - 2010

KorLuren hatt varierende aktivitet og besetning, men er de siste årene kommet i mer faste former igjen.

  • 12.mai 2011 sang vi på operataket i Oslo for gjestene ved Fredssenterets (Kjell M. Bondevik) konferanse om Sør-Afrika.
  • 24.juli 2011 sang vi i Spjærøy kirke, Hvaler.
  • 18.okt 2011 sang vi i Domkirkens kjeller
  • Jan./feb. 2012 oppførte vi «Himmelbrev – Visjonskvede fra Østfold» . Et nyskrevet stykke om himmelske visjoner fra Indre-Østfold 1721.
  • Sept./okt. 2012 USA-tur. Vi dro til New York og Washington DC med «Himmelbrev», religiøse og verdslige folketoner og litt Sør-Afrikansk!
  • Oktober 2014 Meeting Point – South Africa. Spennende konserter og møter med elever, lærere og ungdomsarbeider i Gugulethu utenfor Cape Town.  Samtaler med tidligere presidenter og sang i Biskop Tutus kirke i Cape Town.
  • August 2015 – KorLuren dro til Færøyene og deltar i festivalen Summartónar 2015.  Meeting Point – Faroe Islands 2015

You may read more about our latest activities in Our Blog, unfortunatly/luckily in Norwegian.