New Music Festival - Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra

NMF ESSAY – SIGFRÍDUR BJÖRNSDÓTTIR
Vitality – Variety
The Music Scene
in Iceland
The most prominent event in
the music scene in Iceland in
recent times has to be the
opening of a new concert and
conference hall in Reykjavík,
named Harpa. This long-awaited
home of music was first opened
to the public in the beginning of
May 2011 and the building was
formally inaugurated with an
opening ceremony in August of
the same year. During the first
few months the numbers of
guests visting the house
mounted up to the total number
of inhabitants in Iceland,
320,000 people.
The house itself will, for some,
forever stand as a monument to
the spirit that drove the
Icelandic financial market to
the monumental crash in 2008,
from which the country’s
economy will take years, if not
decades, to recover. At the same
time it is heartily embraced by
others as the 21st century’s
fitting venue for the many types
of music in Iceland that keep
the heartbeat of our culture
robust and vital.
Harpa has already, in its
opening year, been the venue
for several festivals such as the
Nordic Music Days 2011,
Iceland Airwaves, Reykjavík Jazz
Festival and the Reykjavík Arts
Festival as well as a series of
Björk´s latest concerts. And
there are many more to come,
including the Dark Music Days
12 OVERTURE I January – February 2012
2012, along with major
conferences such as the Eve
Online game conference in the
Spring of 2012. Performing
visitors are lining up to appear
in Harpa; Dudamel and
Vengerov have conducted in
the house and Ashkenazy
conducted the opening
concerts. Jonas Kaufmann and
Barbara Bonney have
performed there and Kiri Te
Kanawa is expected soon. The
audiences in Iceland have a
terrific array of options.
In many ways, this huge
harbour project resembles
some of the new concert halls
that have recently opened
around the world with its glassy
look and emphasis on natural
light in the public areas on the
inside. Special effort was made
artistically to place this house
specifically in Iceland through
the design of the glass façade.
Harpa’s façade is designed by
renowned artist Ólafur
Elíasson, Henning Larsen
Architects and Batteríid
Architects. The design is based
on geometric principles;
realised in two and three
dimensions. Reminiscent of the
crystallised basalt columns
commonly found in Iceland,
the southern facades create
kaleidoscopic reflections of the
city and the striking
surrounding landscape.
Harpa is the home of the
Iceland Symphony Orchestra
which celebrated its 60th
anniversary in 2010. The
orchestra has distinguished
itself as one of the leading
Nordic orchestras through its
acclaimed performances and
recordings. The artistic
achievement of the ISO is even
more remarkable given that the
classical music tradition in
Iceland only began in the 20th
century. A short description of
the audience development in
the orchestra’s concerts can be
seen as somewhat typical of what
has been happening in the last
few years in the music field in
Iceland. A steep increase of
subscriptions sales occurred in
the dark hours of the financial
meltdown. One might have
expected a downturn when the
reality of it hit the public with
the freefalling currency and thus
increased prices and cost of
living in general. However, on
the contrary, the increase in
season-ticket sales continued.
When sales for the orchestra’s
2011-2012 season began, they
went through the roof! In short,
in the last three years these sales
have more than doubled.
The live music scene in Iceland
is very active in general and
music events of all kinds draw
large numbers of people.
Research has shown that people
in Iceland’s neighbouring
countries spend as much
money now as before on
culture, but they tend to go to
fewer, more expensive events.
We are not sure yet that this is
the case in Iceland. Not
everything can be measured by
amounts spent; the generous
support for artistic activities in
Iceland ensures a wide range of
music events offered for free or
very little money to the people
around the country.