Heiða Árnadóttir and Tinna Þorsteinsdóttir
The programme of the opening concert of Skálholt Summer Concerts consists of new and old pieces by the composers in residence of this years festival, Þóranna Björnsdóttir and Gunnar Karel Másson. Singer Heiða Árnadóttir and pianist Tinna Þorsteinsdóttir will perform pieces specially written for them at the concert. They are both renowned performers of new music in Iceland.
Árnadóttir will sing Björnsdóttirs piece “Then the self appears” which was premiered at Dark Music Days earlier this year. The piece is build around a text by Søren Kierkegaard and Björnsdóttir says this about her piece: “The voice searches for harmony with itself. What was simple before becomes complicated. What was complicated before is now simple.”
Þorsteinsdóttir will perform a solo piece by Másson for toy piano called “Plink plink” which is a short study exploring the instruments possibilities. She will also premiere a new piece together with Árnadóttir and electronics which is “a postmodernist lied, an answer to the dramatic approach the composers of early music had to the manipulate and distort the form and the melody” according to the composer.
Thursday 02.07
20:00 - Opening Concert: Heiða, Tinna, Þóranna and Gunnar Karel
Árnadóttir will sing Björnsdóttirs piece “Then the self appears” which was premiered at Dark Music Days earlier this year. The piece is build around a text by Søren Kierkegaard and Björnsdóttir says this about her piece: “The voice searches for harmony with itself. What was simple before becomes complicated. What was complicated before is now simple.”
Þorsteinsdóttir will perform a solo piece by Másson for toy piano called “Plink plink” which is a short study exploring the instruments possibilities. She will also premiere a new piece together with Árnadóttir and electronics which is “a postmodernist lied, an answer to the dramatic approach the composers of early music had to the manipulate and distort the form and the melody” according to the composer.
Thursday 02.07
20:00 - Opening Concert: Heiða, Tinna, Þóranna and Gunnar Karel
Heiða Árnadóttir
|
Ragnheiður (Heiða) Árnadóttir graduated from the Music Conservatorium in Reykjavík and continued her studies at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, Holland, where she graduated with a Masters degree in singing. Heida has performed extensively in Iceland and Europe in music varying from modern music to folk and jazz music.
Heiða organizes and makes lyrics for her band Mógil which has released four CD ́s "Ró" 2008, “Í stillunni hljómar” 2011, “Korriró” 2015 and Aðventa "2019" Heiða is artist in residence for Dark Music Days 2020-2022. |
|
Tinna Þorsteinsdóttir
|
Tinna Thorsteinsdóttir is a concert pianist with a broad experience in new music and has premiered around 100 works especially written for her. She works on a regular basis with numerous Icelandic composers, is active in the Icelandic experimental music scene and has worked on solo works with artists such as Helmut Lachenmann, Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff, Peter Ablinger, Morton Subotnick, Cory Arcangel and Mme Yvonne-Loriod Messiaen.
Educated as a classical pianist Tinna plays all the different styles of the piano repertoire, although 21st century music is her main passion. Prepared piano, electronics, toy piano, theatre pieces and performance works often show up on her programs. In recent years Tinna has mainly been active as a performance artist, making installations, soundscapes and performance works with materials like piano parts, her own brainwaves, hot and cold glass and electronic music. |
Tinna´s main solo recitals list the Bergen International Festival in Norway in the series Young Platform at the Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen, Reykjavik Arts Festival, Dark Music Days festival, Reykjavík, Nordic Music Days, Raflost Festival of Electronic Arts, Reykjavík, ppIANISSIMO International Festival for Contemporary Piano Music at the Bulgarian National Radio, Autunno Musicale music festival in Capua, Italy, Nordischer Klang festival in Greifswald, Germany, Foundling Museum in London, The Chinese University in Hong Kong, GL Strand museum in Copenhagen, Summit Club in Beijing and the Nordic Embassies in Berlin.