Dear guests!
Very warm welcome to the Reykholt Chamber Music Festival! The festival is one of the oldest and most established summer festivals in Iceland and an important event in the music scene. As usual the festival is held the during the last weekend of July offering four concerts, one lecture in cooperation with the cultural and medieval centre Snorrastofa and a festive mass on Sunday in Reykholtskirkja.
The opening concert of the festival on Friday evening features the Heimir Men´s Choir from Skagafjörður in north Iceland. The choir is one of the leading male choirs in Iceland and has throughout the years toured extensively, both abroad and in Iceland, as well as recorded many CD´s that have been met with great enthusiasm. Stefán R. Gíslason is the conductor and the accompanist is Thomas R. Higgerson with special guest soprano Þóra Einarsdóttir. The program consists of well known international and icelandic songs and the choir will be joined by the musicians of the festival in a few numbers.
Þóra Einarsdóttir soprano and pianist Steinunn Birna Ragnarsdóttir will join forces in the Saturday afternoon concert. The program will focus on the music scene here in Iceland around 1900 featuring both songs from Scandinavia and Iceland that were prominent on the concert programs in Reykjavík over 100 years ago.
The viola will play a big part in the Saturday evening concert. Atte Kilpeläinen, one of the leading Finnish violists of his generation, will be a special guest of the festival this year. On the first part of the program Atte will play pieces by Schumann, Arvo Pärt and Kaija Saariaho accompanied by pianist Ástríður Alda Sigurðardóttir. After intermission the magnificent but rarely played Divertimento in E-flat major for string trio will be heard.
The closing concert of the Reykholt Chamber Music Festival will be held on Sunday afternoon. The program will be very varied starting with arrangements of three popular Icelandic folk songs for violin and cello. Next the festival will honour the 150 birthday of Sibelius by playing his string trio in g-minor. Following Sibelius we will hear three brand new arrangements for soprano and piano trio by composer Þórður Magnússon of Icelandic popular songs. Last but not least the festival will close with a true gem, the piano quartet in E-flat major op. 47 by Robert Schumann.
Looking forward seeing you in Reykholt this summer!
Sigurgeir Agnarsson
Artistic Director
