Accordion teacher Ottar E. Akre was born in Rendalen in 1896. After a long life in music, he gave his music collection to his home municipality. He lived to experience the exhibition that was exhibited in the old schoolhouse, Gammelskola from 1990.
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On the second floor of the newly restored Gammelskola, now a part of the Rendalstunet outdoor museum, Anno Museene in Hedmark has created a new exhibition about Ottar E. Akre and the accordion.
The exhibition takes us on a journey through the enormous change that took place during Ottar's lifetime. The exhibition also shows how the accordion was used as an instrument at various occasions and in various musical genres. Through Alfred Moen and the orchestra Familien Moen from the neighboring village of Tolga, we get to know skilled musicians who represented the dance music in the rural communities in the region.
Ottar had a number of students on accordion. Several of them became our foremost performers who played the instrument. In connection with playing assignments at Oslo restaurants, tours, radio appearances and many gramophone recordings, Ottar and his trio reached out to a large audience. It is difficult for us today to imagine how he gained a big name with his trio in the following decades. He himself joked about the fact that he was the most famous person in the world in Rendalen.
Rendalen is a rural community with rich musical traditions. The exhibition has a presentation of eight inhabitants in the municipality of Rendalen who have music as a way of life: Bente Illevold, Birger Mistereggen, Guren Hagen, Norunn Illevold Giske, Tore Halvorsen, Tove Hagen and Sigurd Hole.