iceland

The modern concert hall was built in 2011 after the design by Henning Larsen architects. It is the platform of the Iceland SO, founded in 1950. The main hall has 1800 seats; although a curtain, proscenium and stage machinery are lacking, sometimes operas are performed here. (photo I. Sobljak)

Between 1980 and 2011, operas had been performed in this cinema and/or theatre by the company Íslenska Óperan.

The first College of Music was established in 1930, the present College of Music in 1980 as a branch of the University of Arts.

The National and University Library is since 1994 housed in this building, called þjóðarbókhlaðan. The Music department is on the 4^th floor and contains many manuscripts, recordings and audiovisual media about Icelandic music.

Last house of Iceland’s greatest composer, Jón Leifs (1899-1968). He was born as Jón þorleifsson at Solheimer Farm in the North of the country, studied in Reykjavík and Leipzig and lived partly in Germany until the 1950s. He became the leading figure in Iceland’s musical life as teacher, conductor and organiser. His oeuvre is nationalistic but sometimes too ambitious for his homeland; the great dramatic works ─ Baldr, Edda trilogy ─ are penetrating and of striking originality but were never performed during his lifetime.

Grave of Jón Leifs, nr k-25-71. (Photo Varp.)

Graves of three 19^th century musicians: the brothers Jónas and Helgi Helgason were the founders of a choral and a brass band tradition, and Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson (1847-1927), the first professional composer and the creator of the national anthem Ó, guð vors lands.

Concert hall for chamber music. Formerly there was a ‘music museum’ in this town, but its content moved to the National Library in 2017.

This ‘culture centre of the North’ has been equipped with a good concert hall.

House and monument of pastor Bjarni þorsteinsson (1861-1938), ardent collector of folk music and composer of 60 solo and choir songs. In the house is a collection of audio and video recordings of Icelandic folklore; a yearly folklore festival with performances, lectures and workshops was established in 2000 (five days in July).

The best known contemporary composer, Pēterīs Vasks, was born in 1946 in this town as the son of a pastor. In the same year a music school was established where Vasks startet his career, with which he has still a connection (second photo). Spirituality and nature play an important role in the strong music of Vasks which is worldwide appreciated.

A complex of buildings in a traditional fishing village became a museum. One of the buildings houses a collection of 220 harmonicas from the whole world.