Welcome

Julia Kaiser is a freelance radio journalists in the areas of music, music performance development and music education. Her project YoungReporters has been developed over many years. In her workshops for young people she passes on her own journalistic experience and passion for her profession as a reporter, addressing teenagers and young adults and all people with special needs.

Dragged into a magical world

Lilja Sól Helgadóttir, 17 Jahre

Entering Harpa, shining in the pouring rain, gives one a warm and happy feeling. Although Reykjavík’s concerthall is on every guide’s list, coming here does not take you into another tourist trap, but prepares you for the real magic of an intense music experience.

Music in the Dark

Inga Margrét Bragadóttir, 17 Jahre

January is not an enjoyable month in Iceland. But amid the cold and windy days, a festival is held – a music festival.

Growing downwards

Solvéig Gabriela , 15 Jahre

Bára describes SILVA to be built on the idea of a downward growing forest, when I ask her after the concert. She is intrigued at the thought of life that usually reaches and stretches towards light and air, just the other way around.

A Multicultural Sense of Wonder

Sóley Anna Jónsdóttir, 19 Jahre

There’s something in the air. The music floats around, one can never quite place a finger on it but everyone can feel it from deep within.

Composing personality

Hugi Garðarsson, 25 Jahre

Harpa is hosting many of the Dark Music Days concerts. One program is called „Flekarnir“, tectonic plates in English, and includes pieces from various Icelandic composers.

A Modern Homage to the Past

Alvilda Eyvör Elmarsdóttir, 18 Jahre

I am admittedly not the biggest fan of modern day classical music and as we are walking into the hall of Eldborg, I feel a tad nervous about what is to come.

Capriccio

Snædís Birna Brynjarsdóttir, 16 Jahre

Capriccio is a beautiful work done by Áskel Másson, it’s magical the entire time and makes you feel more alive.

Elf king in ancient Greece

Lilja Sól Helgadóttir, 17 Jahre

Meeting composer Úlfur Hansson, and getting to listen to his emotinful piece called Stoicheia was quite an experience.

Wavy music in Iceland

Daníel Kári Jónsson, 20 Jahre

Kjartan himself describes his piece as a colourful wavy journey and I think he executed it very well. I could imagine the sea glimmering in the sun. Truly a night to remember in Harpa.

“I felt like I was in an airplane”

Amelia April Steel, 18 Jahre

Quite the impressive concert took place in Harpan, consisting of pieces by Kjartan Ólafsson, Haukur Tómasson, Ingibjörg Ýr Skarphéðinsdóttir, Gunnar Andreas Kristinsson and Áskell Másson. Ingibjörg’s work really stood out to me!

Engines in the Head

Lúkas Þorlákur Jones, 19 Jahre

A moving piece that fully deserves its praise and gives an intimate and personal perspective on a traumatic part of someone’s life.

Copper world

Andreas Guðmundsson, 22 Jahre

“Capriccio” by Áskell Másson starts very energetically and quickly, the small Darabuka drum, played by the composer himself,  starts establishing an interesting rhythm that continues throughout most of the piece.

NMD Impact

Daniela Amado, 28 Jahre

I walk wide-eyed into Harpa, the steel honeycomb prism that anyone in Reykjavik recognizes as the most prestigious venue in Iceland. Coming from a Latin American country, everything from the design to the inner workings of a first class arts institution fascinates me.

Overall happiness

Lilja Sól Helgadóttir, 17 Jahre

Some of the pieces were just so beautiful! Harpist Katie Buckley and Frank Aarnink, the percussionist who plays that „stuss“, form the Duo Harpverk – were playing amazing throughout the concert.

Eternally

Fannar Árni Ágústsson, 16 Jahre

Háttatal by Guðmundur managed to give me a glimpse of a world of music that, until now, has been unknown to me and for that, I will be eternally grateful.

Viðtal við Ernu Völu

Hugi Garðarsson, 24 Jahre

Last Wednesday I went to a Nordic Music Days concert starring Siggi String Quartet. They had two guest performers in Fabian Svensson’s „Five Obsessive Movements“, playing a melodica and a toy piano. I had a little chat with the pianist, Erna Vala Arnardóttir.

Eating pigs in front of pigs

Styrmir Palsson, 19 Jahre

Have you ever eaten pork while standing besides a pig? Have you ever talked about slaughtering pigs in front of pigs? No? Composer Mathias Monrad Møller was letting people try that at the Reykjavík zoo, it was strange but very, very interesting.

Grisaille

Lilja Sól Helgasdóttir, 17 Jahre

During the world premiere of Gunnar Karel Másson’s piece in Harpa, I wrote this poem.

Podcast: Siggi String Quartet

Styrmir Palsson, 19 Jahre

Styrmir and Hugi discussing the concert of Siggi String Quartet, featuring Ásthildur Ákadóttir, melodica and Erna Vala Arnardóttir, toy piano

Nýtt og norrænt – new and Nordic

Young Reporters at MIT Reykjavík, 17 Jahre

Iceland Symphony Orchestra in cooperation with Nordic Music Days 2022 performed five works at Harpa concert hall. Best thing: 25 students of Menntaskóli í tónlist, the Reykjavík Music School, were attending the concert first row. Here is what they wrote…

This man has more time than anyone else

Styrmir Palsson, 19 Jahre

Gunnar Karel Masson is an Icelandic composer whose work will be performed by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at the Nordic Music Days. His piece is called „Grisaille“ and Gunnar completed the writing of the piece in August, so the people at the concert will be attending the world premiere!

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All at once

Styrmir Palsson, 19 Jahre

Marcella Lucatelli started as a classical singer and was interested in making her own staged works, really pushing the visuals and the moments as well as the aesthetics of it. Therefore, she became a composer accidentally.

Minds blown by the Pinquins

Styrmir Palsson, 19 Jahre

The Pinquins appear several times in the Nordic Music Days. It is not only music you hear, it is a whole show for your eyes as well – this is art!

Four necks and the voice of a popstar

Hugi Garðarsson, 24 Jahre

Thor Magnusson and his team at Intelligent Instruments Lab at LHÍ are developing more advanced ways of instrument buildinging, mixed with computer sciences and programming.

Interviewing the inventor of IIL – Thor Magnusson

Hugi Garðarsson, 24 Jahre

„Future Music“ is the exciting field Thor Magnousson is a professor in at the University of Sussex. Here in Reykjavík, he works as a pricipal investigator at the Intelligent Instruments Lab – meaning, he brought this exciting Laboratory to live.

Like a bees‘ hive – Intelligent Instruments Lab

Daniela Amado, 28 Jahre

A constant loop of controlled noise and intermittent buzzing lives within a yellow, acoustically-paneled room at Listaháskoli Íslands, Iceland’s arts university. In this laboratory for intelligent instruments, the buzzing is two-fold.

Nordic Music Days about to start

JungeReporter from Iceland, 22 Jahre

A team of young reporters from Reykjavík will write about Nordic Music Days 2022 in Iceland. Looking forward to meet composers, musicians and instrument inventors from the north!