Iceland: May 2006 Report
Icelandic Music in Canada
Icelandic contemporary music was the focus this year of the biennial MusiMarch Festival in Montreal along with music from other Nordic countries. At the festival the Icelandic CAPUT Ensemble participated as guest of honour and performed works by Atli Ingólfsson, Haukur Tómasson and Thurídur Jónsdóttir along with new Canadian works.
All three composers are in demand internationally and write various music for chamber ensembles as well as for full orchestra. BIS has published CDs with music by both Tómasson and Ingólfsson, one of them receiving the MIDEM Prize as the best classical CD in 2005.
Dark Music Days 2006
The Icelandic works performed in Canada had just recently been performed at the annual Dark Music Days Festival among many other exciting new compositions from all over the world. The festival was held in Reykjavík last February by the Icelandic Society of Composers in collaboration with many leading Icelandic performers. The 26 year old festival is becoming an increasingly popular music event in Reykjavík with guests now over 3000 per year.
Concert Hall in Reykjavík at Last!
A long awaited contract was signed on 9 March 2006 for the launch of The East Harbour Project to create The Icelandic National Concert & Conference Centre in Reykjavík. This centre will house the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra and is scheduled to be ready in 2009. It will not be too long now until one can listen to symphonic premieres in Reykjavík in a hall built for music performance!
NordMic 2006 and Paul Hoffert in Iceland
The annual NordMic Staff Meeting will be held in Iceland this spring, from 20 to 21 May 21. The meeting will take place at the historical Reykholt site where our famous medieval scholar, Snorri Sturluson, resided. As usual a series of lectures and sharing of information will take place.
A top notch conference, featuring Paul Hoffert as a guest speaker and the topic Music Promotion — The Internet, will be held in Reykjavík on 19 May 19, prior to the meeting. Paul Hoffert, a performer and an awarded film composer who has made the headlines of the Wall Street Journal for his achievements in digital audio technology, is said to have the mind of a mathematician and the soul of an artist.
Search ITM
Further news on contemporary music in Iceland can be found at www.mic.is. On the website one can also find the Ice-Mic search engine (Search ITM) that has received positive attention since it was opened. The following quote can be found on the internet: "Here's another superbly thought-out resource. Once again, a very detailed search form testifies to the care that has gone into putting this site together. And a really nice touch is that all search results (drilling down to just individual works) are downloadable as separate Word, Excel or HTML files. That's really neat."
The Ice-Mic search engine, developed during the years 2003-2004, is under constant development. It contains examples of the listed music on pdf-format, more and more examples being added as the scanning of the complete Ice-Mic archives draws to an end.
