Event info

In this unique concert, Siggi String Quartet will perform on instruments created by instrument maker Jón Marinó Jónsson. The cello was the first to be made, modelled on a 1710 Stradivari cello. The violins and the viola that followed were based on Jón Marinó’s own drawings. The repertoire features four Icelandic works, specially composed for Siggi, as well as Jón Leifs’ first string quartet, Mors et Vita, op. 21 (1939). The audience will be treated to the first ever performance of Mamiko Dís Ragnarsdóttir’s quartet, Blómin fríð, composed under the influence of Eggert Pétursson’s 2011 painting Untitled (Nordurland Tröllaskagi). Haukur Tómasson’s Seremónía (2013) will be heard in a new version. The piece is played very softly but amplified in order to exaggerate details and the extra sound created while playing. Halldór Smárason’s composition draw+play (2017) is an ode to the accordion, dedicated to Ásgeir S. Sigurðsson and Messíana Marzellíusdóttir. Una Sveinbjarnardóttir’s experimental piece Þykkt (2014) is in four parts, each of which revolves around one of the quartet’s instruments: violin, cello, viola, violin.

Artists: Una Sveinbjarnardóttir, Helga Þóra Björgvinsdóttir, Þórunn Ósk Marinósdóttir, Sigurður Bjarki Gunnarsson

Luthier: Jón Marinó Jónsson

The programme will be performed in Fríkirkjan Church in Reykjavik on 3 June at 8 PM and in Hamrar, Ísafjordur on 15 June at 8 PM in collaboration with Ísafjordur Music Society. Tickets for the concert at Hamrar will be available to buy at the door when concert starts.