Siw Burman from Lycksele and Simon Simonsson from Alfta are this year's recipients of the Zorn Badge in gold, the most prestigious folk music award in Sweden.
Siw Burman is awarded "for tradition-conscious, sonorous, and brilliant playing of tunes from Västerbotten", as stated in the motivation. Burman has, after her education to folk music pedagogue at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, devoted great effort to documenting folk music from her region.
Simon Simonsson receives the award "for expressive, genuine, and personal tune playing". He was born in Uppsala and has also lived in Arvika and Ore in Dalarna. In addition to the fiddle, Simonsson also plays the nyckelharpa.
The Zorn Badge is awarded to particularly outstanding tradition bearers within Swedish folk music and was presented by the Zorn Badge Committee of the Swedish Folk Dance Ring in connection with the national folk music gathering in Umeå.
