Josefina Paulson
Interview and filming, Mike Wilkins
Melbourne Australia, January 2011
BIOGRAPHY
Josefina grow up in Västmanland, Sweden and started to play the nyckelharpa as her first instrument. The year was 1993 and she played traditional music at the local music school in Sala and stood on stage for the first time only two years after her first encounter with the instrument. Her passion for music has taken her to different parts of the world but also many various events in Sweden, as in 1995 when she play the Swedish national anthem during the ”World Cup” of women’s soccer between Japan-Sweden on Arosvallen in Västerås.
Over the years she has played in several festivals, such as the Stockholm Water Festival at ”Teaterskeppet” 1996 or 2001, when Josefina travelled as one of Sweden’s representatives on UKM (young culture meet) to Rotterdam in the Netherlands to play at a major European festival.
It was during her studies 2005, at Eric Sahlström Institute in Tobo outside Uppsala, Josefina first considered a life as a musician. Before she applied to study traditional Swedish music at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm in 2008 and was accepted, she found a new passion in the Spanish flamenco tradition, during a stay in Granada, Spain. She returned twice to study flamenco at ”Carmen de las Cuevas” between the year 2008 and 2010.
During her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, she toured with KMHfolk, (a big band with folk musicans from different cultures) to Germany, Hungary, Transylvania, in April 2009. In 2010 she toured with a group of European nyckelharpa players in Sweden, Italy and Germany.
Josefina has a bachelor of music, at The Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm.
2008 Josefina was awarded ”riksspelman” in Delsbo, with the moivation ”for playing the nyckelharpa lively and skillful, in the tradition of Uppland”. During the ”Århundradets spelmanstämma” (a 100th anniversary of the Zorns spelmansstämma on Skansen, a big folk music festival in Stockholm) in 2010, she represented Västmanland, in the concert hall in Nybrokajen 11, standing on the same stage as many of her great role models.
On several occasions, Josefina has performed in various television programs, most recently to discuss the difference between traditional folk music and folk music of today in Sweden.
In Västmanland, 2009 she received the Cultural Award from VLT on the ground ”Josefina IS music” and she is active as a musician in this region through the trio ”Folke, Emma and Josefina ”, and TrioSchedin – three generations of riksspelmän, with Carina Normansson and Gunnar Liss.
Josefina played with a nyckelharps trio on the Swedish Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel’s banns in June 2010 and the month after she held solo concerts in Melbourne, Australia including the World Café ”The Boite” and gave a small radio concert and interview on ”Global Village” PBS, Melbourne.
Josefina teaches at various courses and workshops. 2009 she was one of the teachers at the summer course at Eric Sahlströms Institute in Tobo, Sweden, but she also has courses and workshops outside Sweden, for example France and Australia 2010/2011. Her teaching is coloured by her passion for the instrument as well as for the traditional music. She also let her knowledge as a yoga instructor and mental trainer influence her learning methods, giving her teaching of nyckelharpa playing an interesting twist. She has a two year educaion from Scandinaviska ledarhögskolan in Örebro and graduated as a licensed mental trainer 2005.
2011 Josefina received the ”Bror Hjorth Scholarship” with the jurys motivation ”technically brilliant, very committed performance on the nyckelharpa with both the preservation of cultural traditions and a gentle personal and creative rejuvenation”
One of her greatest passions is the energy and movement in the music, therefore Josefina is a popular dance fiddler.
Josefina has participated in a number of discs, ”KMHfolk 2010!”, KMHfolks Christmas CD (2010) and Annika Fehling ”Fireflies” (2010) and ”KONTAKT” with her trio Folke, Emma & Josefina (2011) and ”Tre i Trä Resonans och Friktion with the group Trio Schedin (2012)