Mainstreet Radio's Erin Galbally visits Andrea Een, a hardanger fiddler extraordinaire and a well-known music professor at St. Olaf College. To the untrained eye the Hardanger fiddle, Norway's national instrument, looks much like the violin. But the nine-string fiddle produces its own distinctive sound. That sound and the instrument will be celebrated at St. Olaf College in Northfield, where more than 300 hundred enthusiasts of the violin sibling are expected to attend.

When Norwegian immigrants began fanning out across the Midwest in the mid-19th century, many brought their Hardanger fiddles. Those immigrants' children and grandchildren were less keen on the instrument, particularly as they assimilated into American society. By World War II, the hardanger was a rarity in the U.S., but thanks largely to the work of the Hardanger Fiddle Association of America, it's making a comeback.