OTHER MUSICIANS

Þóra Einarsdóttir studied at The Reykjavík School of Singing with Prof. Ólöf Kolbrún Harðardóttir and then at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with Prof Laura Sarti. She made her professional debut at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in The Second Mrs. Kong by Sir Harrison Birtwistle at the age of 23. Since then she has sung with opera companies in Iceland , England , Sweden , Switzerland and Germany . She is also an active concert and recital singer and has sung throughout Scandinavia and in Estonia, Germany, Belgium, France, England and America . Highlights include performances with Berliner Rundfunk Chor und Orchester under Robert Gitton in Berliner Dome; The Mozart Festival Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall, London;  The London Solists Chamber Orchestra, Barbican Centre and with The Icelandic Symphony Orchestra in Iceland and in the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC . Recital in the Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall , New York . Special performances for Queen Margaret of Denmark , Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, President of the Italian Republic and the President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson. Þóra has received many grants and awards for her singing and was awarded Knighthood (Ridder af Dannebrogsordenen) from The Queen of Denmark in 1997.  

Jóhanna Ósk Valsdóttir mezzosoprano has studied music since childhood, the violin and the viola and later singing, first with Sieglinde Kahmann and Krystyna Cortes at the Reykjavík College of Music, and then at the Opera and Lied departments of the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, Germany with France Simard-Bruse and Steven Hess. After moving back to Iceland she has also taken lessons with Elín Ósk Óskarsdóttir and Jón Þorsteinsson.Jóhanna has given concerts and appeared as a soloist in Iceland, Israel, Germany, the Czech Republic and USA. Her performances include Magnificat and St. John Passion by J.S. Bach, Rossini’s Cenerentola and Petite Messe Solennelle, Mozart‘s Requiem, Opus Patheticum by F.X. Brixi, Magnificat by J.D. Zelenka and Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb.

Ágúst Ólafsson studied with Eiður Á. Gunnarsson at the Hafnarfjörður Music School and continued his studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Jorma Hynninen and Sali Tiilikainen. He has taken part in masterclasses with Rudolf Jansen, Elly Ameling, Udo Reinemann, Wolfgang Holzmair, Hartmut Höll and Mitsuko Shirai, to name but a few. He studied privately with Elizabeth Schwarzkopf after having attended her masterclasses. At the Sibelius Academy he performed Don Giovanni, Posa in Don Carlo and Le Disqorde in Les arts florissants. With the Opera Studio of East Iceland he sung in The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni. Ágúst´s roles at The Icelandic Opera include Sweeney Todd, the Shadow in Rake´s Progress, Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos and Baron Douphol in La Traviata. Ágúst has performed in Lieder recitals in Finland and in Germany and performed the song cycles of F. Schubert: Die Schöne Müllerin, Die Winterreise and Schwanengesang at the Reykjavik Arts Festival in May, 2010.

About the Iceland Amateur Symphony Orchestra

• The IASO was founded in the autumn of 1990
• The orchestra comprises mostly those who earn their living in occupations other than music. It is also an ideal venue for students and instrumental teachers who wish to ‘keep their hand in.’
• The orchestra comprises on average between 40 and 50 people, with active participants over the years being well over one hundred.
• Ingvar Jónasson was the orchestra’s artistic director from its foundation until 2005, since when the position has been held by Oliver Kentish.
• The orchestra’s repertoire has to a large extent comprised the Viennese Classics, although it has also premiered a growing number of Icelandic music, much either commissioned by the IASO or especially written for them.
• A large number of Iceland’s leading singers and instrumentalists have performed with the IASO.
• The IASO has joined forces with a large number of choirs and choral societies, performing works, both large and small, from the repertoire. In 2007 the IASO performed Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” with the Chorus of the Icelandic Opera under the direction of Garðar Cortes, in the presence of the composer’s widow. And in December 2009 the orchestra performed Händel‘s Messiah with the Neskirkja Choir under the direction of Steingrímur Þórhallsson.