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Press Release
To celebrate 30 years since the opening of the
Sigurjón Ólafsson
Museum, the family of the late sculptor Sigurjón Ólafsson
invites to a concert in his museum Sunday October 21st at 8 pm. The
program consists of three works, all inspired by sculptures by
Sigurjón Ólafsson. | ||||||||
Sigurjón Ólafsson |
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Hlíf Sigurjónsdóttir
was born in Denmark and grew up in Iceland,
studying 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 as a stipendiary at
the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada. Later she took private lessons in New York from the
renowned violinist and teacher 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, MRS 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, has 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, first released in 2008. Hlíf is the artistic director of Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum Summer Concert Series. | |
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Cellist Þórdís Gerður Jónsdóttir studied at the jazz department
of the FÍH Music School, with improvisation as the main subject. At her FÍH graduation concert
in 2015, only her own compositions were performed, and she emphasized that her collegues - the jazz
band- practiced and played in the style of classical chamber music. Þórdís enrolled at the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 2014 and finished her B.Mus. degree in 2017 under the guidence of Bryndís Halla Gylfadóttir. In recent years, Þórdís has played with groups of very diverse styles, such as the Björk band, the Jazz Quintet of Sigurður Flosason and Hans Olding, the Caput Group, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Nord, Umbra Ensamble and Elektra Ensamble. In her own jazzquartet, the cello is the vocalist − being the instrument that best resembles the human voice. Þórdís finished her first solo album in May this year, with her own compositions. | |
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After studying composition in Amsterdam, Jónas Tómasson returned to Iceland in 1973 and
settled in Ísafjörður, a village in North West Iceland. He played a prominent part in
various fields of musical life there, as a teacher of flute and theoretical subjects at the local music
school, a flautist and choir conductor, and for years he supervised concert programmes for the
Ísafjörður Music Society. Still, composition remained his primary vocation and in recent
years it has been his full-time occupation. Jónas is a prolific composer, whose works are varied and diverse. His compositions include a number of symphonic works, and in recent years he has written eight Sinfoniettas exploring the sound world of the symphonic orchestra with different instrumentations. He has also composed several concertos, e.g. for organ, viola, piano, two pianos and orchestra. Choral works, sacred and secular, are a large part of his oeuvre, for instance Missa Tibi Laus, A Lucas Oratorio, Missa Brevis and Songs to the Earth. Jónas has composed many chamber works for diverse, and often innovative, combinations of instruments, as well as solo works for instruments or voice, often at the special request of the artists. Gríma − The Mask was written for Hlíf Sigurjónsdóttir, inspired by her father's sculpture Gríma and premiered by Hlíf and cellist Julia MacLaine at Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum Summer Concerts in 2007. | |
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Born in Berlin, Alexander Liebermann
is the winner of several competitions
including ASCAP's Morton Gould Award, Germany's GEMA award, and the 2013 Juilliard Orchestra composition
competition. His music has been played in Europe, North & South America, and Asia by renowned artists,
ensembles and orchestras such as fiddler Gilles Apap, pianist Philippe Bianconi, the New York Virtuoso
Singers, the RBO Leipzig, the Juilliard Orchestra with Jeffrey Milarsky, the Nice Philharmonic with Philippe
Auguin, and the Stradivari-Soloists with members of the Berlin Philharmonic. Mr. Liebermann received his BM
from the Hanns Eisler music conservatory in Berlin where he studied with Maria Baptist and his MM from the
Juilliard School where he studied with Samuel Adler, Philip Lasser, and Steven Stucky. Currently, Alexander is
enrolled in the doctoral program of the Manhattan School of Music where he studies with Reiko
Füting . Snót - A Girl was written for Hlíf Sigurjónsdóttir in 2018, inspired by one of her father's stone sculptures. | |
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Povl Christian Balslev
is educated at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen, as organist and conductor, and also
as a carilloneur from The Scandinavian Carilloneur College .
Since 2002 he is the cantor and carilloneur at the Church of Our Lady in Svendborg Fyn. He also teaches at
Løgumkloster Curch Music School, conducts choirs and he is the initiator of several music festivals,
including the the Our Lady Church Festival and theInternational Carilloneur in Svendborg. Besides his musical performance, both as pianist and organist, Povl is an active composer of songs, choir- and organ works, chamber music as well as music for theater and documentaries. He has recorded several CDs and he is a frequent lecturer of Danish song around Denmark. In 2009 he wrote the biography og Th. Aagaard, including historical review of vocal music in Fyn, and he has written numerous articles and chapters in books about music. Povl Christian Balslev is a recipient of several awards, in 2014 he received the Svendborg Municipal Culture Prize and in 2016 the Fyn Cultural Prize. Povl wrote a suite in 5 movements for Hlíf, inspired by her fathers sculpture, Fótboltamenn − Football Players which is currently on display in Egeskov in Denmark. | |
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