About Eikanger-Bjørsvik Musikklag
It is the band and the musicians who are the guiding stars in our organisation.
The bands' vision is "We shall lead way" and this shall happen through the bands' values: Quality - Commitment - Community.
Through both the high musical level and the work with new generations of band musicians, they show themselves again and again as great role models.
Eikanger-Bjørsvik's history began in 1949. But the history can be traced even further back. Here you can read through some of the highlights.
The start
Eikanger-Bjørsvik Musikklag was founded in 1971 after a meeting between Eikanger Musikklag and Bjørsvik Musikklag. The hyphen in the name was supposed to indicate that it was a collaborative project and not two bands that joined forces.
But it started before that.
In 1939, Nils Nygård was the initiator of buying instruments to start a music group in Modalen, but due to a lack of instructors they were unable to start the band.
The reason why this must be mentioned is that when Eikanger Musikklag was started on 28 February 1949, they knew that instruments had been bought to start a band in Modalen. Therefore, they took the church boat the 50 kilometers to Mo and bought the instruments that were lying unused there. The price was set at NOK 1,200.
Fact: Nils Nygård later moved to Seim in Nordhordland and became a teacher at the primary school. There he had Frode Rydland, one of the bands' honorary members, as a pupil.
Two years later, in 1951, Bjørsvik Musikklag was started on 17 February in Bjørsvik. The conductor for Bjørsvik Musikklag was Arlix Larsen. In the years to come, Eikanger Musikklag and Bjørsvik Musikklag were closed at various times. Eikanger was closed from 1954 to 1957 and started up again in 1957. Shortly after Eikanger returned to activity, Bjørsvik Musikklag was closed and had a break until 1966.
Facts: Arlix Larsen was the brother of Leif Larsen, better known as Shetland-Larsen who together with the Shetland gang saved countless lives during the Second World War.
Merging
In 1969, an invitation was sent out for a contact meeting for the two bands. The theme of the meeting was merging the bands and the aim was to have a larger and more well-functioning band in terms of operations and members. In 1971, the band was formally merged and the foundation date was set to the date Eikanger Musikklag was started, 28 February 1949.
Over the years there was a rapid development in the band. Tom Brevik took over the band in 1973 and several concerts and greater activity took place, and the Eikanger-Bjørsvik Musikklag traveled on its own first England tour in 1977. People still talk about the 12(!) days in England where the highlight was the concert in Stroud.
Fact: In Stroud, the band didn't just play band music. The concert also had song,
Bands and choirs from the bands line up on the programme.
Brassband Klubben
Eikanger-Bjørsvik was also one of the founders of the Brass Band Club in the late 70s.
The brass band club first organized the Nationals for brass band in Grieghallen in 1979.
Fact: To get the first Nationals in Grieghallen up and running, members of both Eikanger-Bjørsvik and other bands took out loans on their houses to secure the event.
A new era
In 1986 Howard Snell came to Eikanger-Bjørsvik and his first meeting with the band in November 1986 set a new standard for the band. Howard came in and started the culture that stands strong to this day.
Fact: Howard Snell has a mantra: "All you have to do is listen!"
Eikanger-Bjørsvik has the vision "We shall lead way" and over the years the band has
conducted concerts, collaborative projects and recordings that have set new standards for what a brass band can do.
Fact: Eikanger-Bjørsvik was an official Olympic band at the Lillehammer Olympics, has in collaboration with Jo Strømgren and Carte Blanche made the opening performance at Bergen International Festival as well as winning several awards for recordings such as Tales and Stories (Reid Gilje), Romeo and Juliet (Bjarte Engeseth) and Gaia Symphony (Andreas Hansson).
No elite without the grassroot
But perhaps the most important thing in recent years is what happened in 1997 and 2004.
In 1997, Eikanger-Bjørsvik started its own summer course Feriespel with Jane Westervik in front. Since then, Eikanger has shown his commitment to society through his work with young musicians and school bands.
Through countless sit-in rehearsals, seminars, Feriespel, in recent years also running Hordaland
Ungdomsbrassband (HUBB), collaboration with the Bergen Cornet Ensemble and now most recently the project KorpsID, which starts in 2024, the band has taken responsibility for the band environment.
This is because the band is keen to contribute on giving young musicians the opportunity to experience mastery and thus want to continue with their hobby in bands at all levels later in life.
In 2004, the band got its own music house. Having your own rehearsal room where you could invest in good acoustics and good listening conditions has had a lot to say for further musical development.
Fact: Eikanger-Bjørsvik's members and people around the band have spent over 20,000
hours on Feriespelet since 1997.
Contests
As a result of the culture that has been created in Eikanger-Bjørsvik, the band has won numerous contests. As of 2024, the band is the most winning band in Norway. The band has 21 National Championship titles, 20 Siddis titles and 3 European Championship titles to name a few. Here you will find an overview of many of the results
Thanks to all those who throughout history have contributed to Eikanger-Bjørsvik Musikklag being what it has become today: One of the world's best bands.
