Norwegian composer and performer Benedicte Maurseth first took up the distinctive nine-string Hardanger fiddle at the age of seven, and after 30 years of studying with the same master, she has incorporated its distinctive voice into transformative works of evocative beauty.

She and three collaborators – keyboardist Morten Qvenild, bassist Mats Eilertsen and percussionist Håkon Stene – are performing tracks from their latest album Mirra at three concerts in Australia, the first of which closes the 2025 Utzon Music season at Sydney Opera House in an absorbing 70-minute set.

Benedicte Maurseth: Norwegian Tradition Reimagined. Photo © Ravyna Jassani

By way of introduction to the Norwegian “devil’s violin” with its four bowed strings and five sympathetic strings, Maurseth takes us back more than 250 years to a folk tune, the main strings playing the tune over a chordal drone like a hurdy-gurdy.

On Mirra, Maurseth, a keen conservationist, follows the seasonal movements of reindeer herds amid the mountains, fjords and morains of the wild Hardanger region in western Norway where she lives and grew up.

Beautifully etched soundscapes meld electronic effects with acoustic instruments – with the often haunting fiddle at the core –...