Event info

REYKJAVIK OPERA DAYS PRESENTS:

Songs and Dances of Death, a song cycle composed by Modest Mussorgsky to poems by the composers relative Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov, was written in the mid 1870s Death plays a big part in each song, depicting poetic but realistic experiences of 19th century Russia: child death, death in youth, drunken endeavours and war.

Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, a song cycle composed by Gustav Mahler on his own texts, was written around 1884-85. Mahler wrote the cycle in the wake of his unhappy love for soprano Johanna Richter, whom he met while conducting in Germany. Hence each song depicts his own personal feelings on the matter.

Icelandic Baritone Aron Axel Cortes began his musical studies 18 years of age at The Reykjavík Academy of Singing and Vocal Arts, where he studied both singing and choir conducting. He obtained his ABRSM degree in 2009. At the same time he studied piano playing and composing at The Reykjavík School of Music and did so for three years. In 2009 he started his studies at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg with Prof. Martha Sharp, and in 2014 with Prof. Boris Bakow and Art Song and Oratorio Prof. Therese Lindquist. He obtained his MA Opera degree in 2014 and his MA Art Song & Oratorio in 2016. Since 2017 Aron has been studying with Prof. Helene Karusso in Vienna. He has attended masterclasses with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Kristinn Sigmundsson, Richard Stokes and Clara Taylor.

Major roles on the opera stage include, Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Count (The Marriage of Figaro), Escamillo (Carmen) and Marcello (La boheme). Main concert engagements include, The Christmas Oratorio, St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion and The Messiah.

Aron is represented by agencies both in Munich and Berlin.

The festival pass and coupon card are both valid for this concert

Pianist Hrönn Þráinsdóttir  studied in Germany at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg where her principal teachers were Prof. Dr. Tibor Szász and Hans-Peter Müller professor of lyrics. She graduated in 2004 with a diploma in music performance, lied-accompaniment and music education. She moved to Stuttgart to study with Professor Cornelis Witthoefft at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst and received her Master's degree from the faculty of lyrics in 2007

Hrönn has given concerts and accompanied singers and instrumentalists in Iceland and abroad. Hrönn´s repertoire as a solist and a chamber musician ranges from early music (Baroque) to contemporary music. Hrönn recieved, as a member of Chamber Orchestra Ísafold, the Icelandic Music Awards price in 2007 for a CD containing modern Music.

She teaches at the Reykjavík Academy of Singing and Vocal Arts and the Reykjavík College of Music.