Annbjørg Lien

In 2019 she received her PhD degree in hardingfele (Hardanger fiddle games) from the University of Agder. She has no other academic education and learned fiddle games straight from the masters.

Her 2008 project Waltz With Me brought together American fiddler, guitarist and singer Bruce Molsky, Swedish violist Mikael Marin and Canadian cellist Christine Hanson for a concert commissioned by the Telemark Festival. The project included a CD of the same name. With Arve Moen Bergset, Bjørn Ole Rasch and Steinar Ofsdal, she is a member of the folk music group Bukkene Bruse.

In her work, Lien often combines traditional Norwegian music with jazz and rock music. She has traveled to Africa, Asia, Australia, Argentina, Bhutan, Greenland, Iceland, Sri Lanka, North America, and other parts of Europe, and worked with musicians from many countries. In 2006 she performed on Loreena McKennitt's album An Ancient Muse playing nyckelharpa, and in 2008 she played Hardanger fiddle on Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh's album Imeall.

Lien is part of the fiddle ensemble String Sisters, which formed in 2000 and consists of six string players from different countries, who released their début album Live in 2007.

She first came to national prominence in 1986. Shortly afterwards got a recording deal with the Heilo label and released her first album on that label in 1988. She has received numerous awards, both in Norway and the Nordic countries, including the Gammleng Prize in classical folk music in 2004 and the Hilmar Prize in 2006.

Annbjørg Lien (born 15 October 1971) is a Norwegian musician, playing the hardingfele (Hardanger fiddle), violin, and nyckelharpa.