Event info

Three young musicians, pianist Erna Vala Arnardóttir, cellist Hjörtur Páll Eggertsson and violinist Sólveig Vaka Eyþórsdóttir, perform three magnificent pieces of the romantic era in Norðurljós.

The concert will open with Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen’s Solo Cello Sonata, followed by Violin Sonata in E-minor by Englishman Edward Elgar. At the very heart of German chamber music, Johannes Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 1 will end the second half after a short intermission.

Erna Vala Arnardóttir, pianist born 1995, has performed widely in Europe and the USA in recent years in addition to being awarded numerous prizes for her playing. Most recently, she received the White Rose Medal of Honor from Sauli Niinistö, president of Finland, and won first prize in the EPTA Piano Competition in Iceland. Erna Vala has performed as the soloist with both the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Iceland Amateur Symphony Orchestra. She has been invited as guest artist for festivals such as Arctic Initiative in Washington D.C., Albignac Piano Festival in France and Trinity Laban Contemporary Art Festival in London.

Erna Vala is a founding member and president of the Icelandic Schumann Society. The non-profit aims to support a healthy and active cultural life in Iceland, to introduce the work and music of the Schumanns and their contemporaries, and to organize and promote arts and music events in Iceland. In August, the Schumann Society will organize the music festival Seigla in Harpa, Sigurjónssafn and Hannesarholt. Erna Vala is the artistic director of the festival.

Erna Vala earned her Master’s degree in Piano Performance from the Sibelius Academy in Finland, studying with Hamsa Juris. She is now working towards a Doctoral degree in Piano Performance at USC Thornton School of Music as a Fulbright Scholar, under the guidance of Bernadene Blaha. Previously, she finished her Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance at the Iceland University of the Arts with Peter Máté as her teacher. Erna Vala has received extremely helpful grants for her studies, including the Rotary Grant in 2021, Birgir Einarsson Memorial Grant in 2020 and 2017, Jón Stefánsson Memorial Grant in 2019, Halldór Hansen Memorial Grant in 2018 and Landsbankinn’s Scholarship in 2017. Erna Vala was also one of the winners of the Icelandic Young Soloist Competition in 2014.

Hjörtur Páll Eggertsson was five years old when he started playing the cello. His first teacher was Örnólfur Kristjánsson, but soon he would continue his studies at the Reykjavík College of Music with Sigurgeir Agnarsson and Gunnar Kvaran, as well as studying with Liv Opdal for a year which he spent in Stavanger. Hjörtur has actively participated in festivals in Europe and the United States, as well as having played in masterclasses given by László Fenyo, Chu Yi-Bing, Henrik Brendstrup and Marko Ylönen. He is also an active player of chamber music, having won the first prize of the Icelandic Music School Competition, "Nótan", with his string quartet in 2014, as well as having participated in masterclasses given by Sibbi Bernhardsson and Eugene Drucker. He has participated and played concerts with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Orkester Norden and the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, and is also a member of The Danish Youth Ensemble and the newly established chamber orchestra Elja, a recent nominee at the Iceland Music Awards for Best Live Performance. In March 2017 he played as a soloist in Shostakovich’s 1st Cello Concerto with the Reykjavik College of Music Orchestra. A year later he was invited to give a recital at the North Norfolk Music Festival in England. Later that year, Hjörtur became one of four winners of the Icelandic Young Soloists competition, which gave him the opportunity to appear as soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. He did so in January 2019, playing the Elgar Cello Concerto. Since 2017 Hjörtur has been studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen under the guidance of Morten Zeuthen. Alongside the cello, Hjörtur has since the fall of 2020 studied conducting at the Malko Academy for Young Conductor, which operates in cooperation with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. This has given him the opportunity to conduct for Herbert Blomstedt in a masterclass, among other things. He plays a cello made for him in 2016 by the Icelandic luthier Hans Jóhannsson.

Sólveig Vaka Eyþórsdóttir was born in Iceland in 1994 and started her violin studies at the age of 8 in Reykjavík with Anna Rún Atladóttir. She later continued her studies under the guidance of Ari Þór Vilhjálmsson at the Reykjavík College of Music and Guðný Guðmundsdóttir at the Iceland University of the Arts. Sólveig Vaka has been a part of the Hamrahlíð Choir under the direction of esteemed choir conductor Þorgerður Ingólfsdóttir since the beginning of her studies at Menntaskólinn við Hamrahlíð in 2010. She has performed with the musician Ólafur Arnalds since 2015, both in recordings and at concerts around the world. Sólveig Vaka has also played with various music groups in Iceland, including CAPUT and Brák Baroque Ensemble, and she is one of the founding members of Elja Ensemble. In October 2019, In October 2019, Sólveig Vaka was one of four winners of the Icelandic Young Soloist Competition, and subsequently performed Max Bruch's first violin concerto with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in January 2020. Sólveig Vaka has attended numerous international academies, including Madeline Island Music Camp in Wisconsin, Indiana University Summer String Academy in Bloomington and International Summer Academy Bad Leonfelden in Austria. She has also been a part of many academies in her hometown of Reykjavík and has travelled around Scandinavia to proceed with her orchestral studies. Among the teachers she has received lessons from are Leon Spierer, Tanja Becker-Bender, Kurt Nikkanen and Ingolf Turban. Sólveig Vaka now resides in Germany where she studies at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig with Prof. Erich Höbarth.

This concert is supported by Ýlir Music Fund and the Icelandic Music Fund.