ARVO PÄRT – STABAT MATER / Concert
ARVO PÄRT – STABAT MATER
Hildigunnur Rúnarsdóttir · Elín Gunnlaugsdóttir · Tryggvi M. Baldvinsson
Saturday March 30th at 17 hrs.
Jóna G. Kolbrúnardóttir soprano
Guja Sandholt mezzo soprano
Þorsteinn Freyr Sigurðsson tenor
Hlíf Sigurjónsdóttir violin
Martin Frewer viola
Þórdís Gerður Jónsdóttir cello
Ragnheiður Ingunn Jóhannsdóttir conductor
Tickets are available at Hallgrímskirkja and on tix.is
Admission ISK 4.000
Stabat Mater by Arvo Pärt is the centerpiece of today’s concert. It was composed in 1985 at the request of The Alban Berg Foundation. Pärt originally wrote the piece for three solo singers and a string trio, as it will be performed today, but later went on to arrange it for choir and orchestra. The music is set to the famous Stabat Mater text, probably by a medieval munk, Jacopo da Todi (1230 - 1306). Many other composers, such as Vivaldi, Rossini, Haydn, Pergolesi and Dvořák have also set music to the text. The hymn describes Mary’s grief as she stands near the cross of her son, Jesus, and witnesses his suffering and death. The narrator of the poem asks to take part in the suffering and to finally be granted a place in Paradise.
The small chamber music composition Es sang vor langen Jahren is one of the few of Pärt’s tintinnabuli works that are not based on liturgical texts, but on a poem, more precisely, a love poem. The verses by Clemens Brentano (1778–1842), a major figure of German Romanticism, are centered around painful longing for his lost loved one; the borders between earthly and divine love, as well as those between the present moment and memories are blurred as in a dream.
Together with the two pieces by Pärt, there are various psalms and songs by Icelandic composers on the programme which are all in one way or another thematically connected to the Stabat mater text and the faith.
Mucisians:
Jóna G. Kolbrúnardóttir began her studies at The Reykjavík School of Singing and Vocal Arts and graduated in the spring of 2014 under the guidance of Harpa Harðardóttir. Jóna continued her studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 2018 under the guidance of Univ. Prof. Gabriele Lechner. She graduated with a master's degree in the spring of 2021 from the Opera Academy at The Royal Opera House in Copenhagen under the guidance of Helene Gjerris and Susanna Eken. Jóna has been visible in the music scene in Iceland in recent years. She has performed as a soloist in various concerts with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra but also with the major choirs in Iceland. Jóna has performed with the Icelandic Opera and at the Royal Opera in Copenhagen.
Jóna is one of the founders of the Chamber Opera, a newly founded opera company in Iceland.
The Chamber Opera is creating a platform for smaller opera projects. Jóna is also a member of the Chamber quartet organized by the company. Among her operatic roles are; Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Anna in Brothers, Despina in Così fan tutte, Pagagena and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte. Jóna is very interested in singing Lied. She has held numerous Lied recitals and is always working on new material in that field.
Tenor Þorsteinn Freyr Sigurðsson earned a master's degree in classical singing from the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin in 2013 under the guidance of Prof. Scot Weir. Between 2014 and 2017 Sigurdsson was contracted to the Theater Ulm Opera House in southern Germany, where he sang many leading roles. He also has extensive experience as a performer of Lieder and Oratorio and has given concerts in both Germany and Iceland. After his return to Iceland in 2017, Sigurðsson has participated in various projects both on the opera stage and as a chamber musician. A versatile singer, he is also an active member of numerous choirs and singing groups, including Schola Cantorum Reykjavicensis, Voces Masculorum and Kyrja. Þorsteinn has conducted the Reykjavik Boys Chorus since 2019.
Unnsteinn Árnason started his music career at the Mosfellsbær Music School. In 2008 he started his vocal studies at the Reykjavík Academy of Singing, first under the guidance of Alexander Ashworth and then Garðar Thór Corters, Viðar Gunnarsson and Krystyna Cortes pianist. In 2013 he won the competition "Young Soloists" and sang a concert with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in Eldborg, Harpa. In 2013-2017 Unnsteinn studied Opera singing at Vienna‘s Music University under the guidance of Karlheinz Hanser. In 2016 he was chosen to participate in the Young Singers Project at the Salzburger Festspiele. After graduation, Unnsteinn sang at the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck until 2021. He was chosen as the most promising young singer at the 2019 Austrian Music Awards for his portrayal of Mr. Kofner in Menotti's opera Der Konsul. During the 2021-2022 season, Unnsteinn sang Sarastro in The Magic Flute in Innsbruck and the role of Polyphem in Die Odyssee at the Zurich Opera. In the summer of 2022, Unnsteinn sang at the Bregenzer Festspiele, the roles Comissario in Madame Butterfly and Walinoff/Governatore in Umberto Giordano's Siberia. He sang the role of Guglielmo in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte in the first production of „Kammeróperan“ in October 2022. Unnsteinn sang the role of Comissario in Madame Butterfly in a new production of the Icelandic Opera.
Icelandic singer Guja Sandholt lives in Amsterdam and Reykjavík and performs regularly in the Netherlands, Iceland and internationally. She is also the Artistic Director of an opera/music theatre festival in Iceland, Reykjavík Opera Days, which was chosen Music Festival of the Year 2018 at the Icelandic Music Awards after the 2nd edition in 2018.
Recently, Guja portrayed Leonore in an adapted performance of Beethoven's Fidelio in Iceland and Estonia; Julia Child in Lee Hoiby's Bon Appétit! and Popova in William Walton's The Bear. Guja enjoys the oratorio repertoire and has e.g sung the solo parts of the Christmas Oratorio, Matthew Passion, Messiah, Duruflé's and Mozart's Requiem, Beethoven's Mass in C, Dvorak's and Pärt's Stabat Mater and Vivaldi's Gloria.
Prior to moving to the Netherlands in 2010, she studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. In the Netherlands, she studied at the Conservatory in Utrecht. She regularly attends private lessons with Stephanie Doll in Düsseldorf. An experienced ensemble singer, Guja has a part time job with the Dutch Radio Choir. In 2011-2012, she worked for Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and his family in connection with the IAPC-centre in Estonia.
Ragnheiður Ingunn Jóhannsdóttir graduated from the Iceland University of the Arts in the spring of 2021 with a double bachelor's degree in violin and vocal performance, with orchestral conducting as an extra subject. In 2023 she graduated with a master's degree in vocal performance from the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. She was awarded the rising star prize as “The Brightest Hope in Icelandic Music” at the Icelandic Music Awards in March 2023. In Reykjavík, Ragnheiður was the winner of the classical singing competition Vox Domini in 2022 and was named “Voice of the Year”. In 2023 she sang the soprano solo in Mahler’s 4th symphony with the Iceland Youth Symphony and sang and conducted arias with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. In the fall of 2023 she performed Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments with a violinist at the Reykjavík Opera Days.
As a violinist she has performed as a soloist with the Reykjavík College of Music Symphony, played in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and been the concertmaster of the Iceland Symphony Youth Orchestra. She has performed with various artists in different genres of music in recordings, concerts and music festivals internationally.
In 2022 she was accepted into the Malko International Academy for Young Conductors in Copenhagen where she studies orchestral and choir conducting until the summer of 2024. This season she is also the conductor of the Iceland Youth Symphony and Reykjavík College of Music Symphony and has conducted a children's concert and TV recordings with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Ragnheiður also conducted string orchestra recordings on Björk’s newest album, Fossora.
Hlíf Bente Sigurjónsdóttir studied the violin with concertmaster Björn Ólafsson at the Reykjavík College of Music. She furthered her studies at the Universities of Indiana and Toronto where her teachers were Franco Gulli and Lorand Fenyves, followed by two winters at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada. Later she took private lessons in New York from Gerald Beal. Hlíf has worked with many of the leading musicians of the twentieth century, including William Primrose, Janos Starker, Ruggiero Ricci, Igor Oistrach, György Sebok and the members of the Hungarian quartet.
Hlíf has given numerous concerts both as a soloist and with various ensembles and orchestras. In
2014, MSR Classics released her disc DIALOGUS with works for solo violin, all of which were written for her. That disc has been highly acclaimed, e.g. by Voix des Arts, and one of Fanfare Magazine’s critics, Maria Nockin, named it as one of the best CDs of the year 2015. In 2015 MSR Classics re-released the critically acclaimed 2-CD set of her playing the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by J.S. Bach from 2008.
Hlíf is very concerned about historical recordings made by the Iceland National Broadcasting Service which has led to radio programs, releasing a CD and events, featuring the first generation of classically trained musicians in Iceland. Hlíf is the artistic director of Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum Summer Concert Series.
Martin Frewer, violinist and mathematician, was born in England. After graduating from Oxford, he studied violin at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
In 1983, Martin was hired by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and since then he has taken an active part in music life in Iceland.
Martin is a skilled arranger. He plays with and manages the chamber ensemble Spiccato.
Þórdís Gerður Jónsdóttir (Thordis Gerdur Jonsdottir) is a cellist who equally plays classical music and jazz, improvises on the cello and composes her own music. She studied classical cello performance in Iceland University of the Arts in 2014-2017 and completed a masters degree in cello performance from the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus Denmark in 2021. Þórdís graduated from the FÍH College of Music in 2015 where her focus was on improvisation and composition. Þórdís is a co-founder of the chamber music group Cauda Collective where the role of the classical music performer is challenged and expanded. She has played regularly with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra as a substitute cellist since 2018 and has been in productions in the two major theaters in Reykjavík. In 2021 Þórdís released her jazz album Vistir with her own compositions and arrangements. Recently, her focus has been on premiering in Iceland older pieces that are rarely performed, such as Kurt Weil’s sonata for cello and piano and Ernest Bloch’s suites for solo cello. In 2014 Þórdís graduated with a bachelor degree in nursing from the University of Iceland and in 2019 she completed a postgraduate degree in public health sciences. She is currently working on a master degree in pediatric nursing and between concerts she works as a registered nurse in the pediatric emergency room of the Iceland University Hospital.