Taïga String Quartet

Taïga String Quartet is a new young string quartet consisting of violinists Isabelle Bania, Louise Gorm, violist Alice Vaz and cellist Maria Edlund. After studies at different European music academies the four musicians met in Berlin and reside in Copenhagen, combining creative forces to specialize in bringing to life contemporary compositions.

DUO EDDA

Duo Edda is a Nordic ensemble consisting of the Danish violinist Vera Panitch and Icelandic cellist Steiney Sigurðardóttir. They began their musical cooperation in 2018 when they met in Iceland Symphony Orchestra in Reykjavík where they both have leading positions.

The duo has received support from The Rannís foundation in Iceland and recently won 3rd prize at the prestigious P2 Chamber Music Competition 2020 in Copenhagen.

ELENA POSTUMI & PÉTUR BJÖRNSSON

The pianist and composer Elena Postumi studied at the Conservatory of ,,Santa Cecilia” in her hometown of Rome from which she graduated with highest honors in solo performance, song-accompaniment and composition. As a soloist has Elena performed in Italy and abroad and appears regularly as a chamber musician and an accompanist. As a passionate composer she has composed works for different constellations and occations. In 2019 her concerto for violin and orchestra was premiered in Reykjavik, Iceland. Pétur Björnsson was born in Akranes and began playing the violin at the age of 4. As a chamber musician and a recitalist Pétur has given concerts in Iceland, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. Since 2012 he has been a substitute in The Iceland Symphony Orchestra and plays with them regular basis. He has served as a concert master with various youth orchestras and is also dedicated to contemporary music, Pétur is a member of the contemporary music ensemble Skark in Reykjavík and one of the founding members of Elja Ensemble. Pétur has also been active outside the classical music scene touring the world with Ólafur Arnals as a member of his string quartet since 2018. He has also composed and performed with the musical performance art group Hatari.

HERDÍS ANNA JÓNASDÓTTIR & ELFA RÚN KRISTINSDÓTTIR

HERDÍS ANNA JÓNASDÓTTIR (soprano) & ELFA RÚN KRISTINSDÓTTIR (violinist) These two forces of nature perform their collaboration Kafka Fragmente in Germany and Iceland.
Herdís Anna: http://www.herdisanna.com & Elfa Rún: http://www.elfarun.com
About Kafka Fragmente
One of the truly grand old men on the music scene today, György Kurtág composed his Kafka-Fragmente in the mid-1980s, and these forty settings of text fragments by Franz Kafka remain one of his most often-performed works. Although the cycle contains no single narrative thread and tells no coherent ‘tale’ it has become quite common to present it in staged versions – perhaps because of the hypnotic images that emerge in the texts, as well as in the music.

Kordo kvartettinn / Kordo String Quartet

The Kordo String Quartet consists of violinists Páll Palomares and Vera Panitch, viola player Þórarinn Már Baldursson and cellist Hrafnkell Orri Egilsson. It was formed in late summer 2018 and held its first a concert in Harpa's Norðurljós Hall in February 2019.

TAIGA STRING QUARTET

Margaret Hermant & Fabien Lesure

Margaret Hermant is a violinist, harpist and composer based in Brussels, who graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. She is a founding member of Echo Collective, Quatuor MP4 and BOW quintet and collaborated actively with composers and artists like Jóhann Jóhannsson, Adam Witlzie, Dustin O’Halloran, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Stars of the Lid, Joep Beving, Christina Vantzou, and Rutger Hoedemaekers. Helping bring to life revered works of Post Classical Music. As a solo composer Margaret Hermant scores music for movie, theater, art installations, and dance performance. She uses mostly harp, violin, and processed acoustic sound. She composes in close collaboration with sound engineer/producer Fabien Leseure. Always looking how to balance original acoustic sound with effects and sound processing technics. Her artistic work begins with a musical gesture, improvising, playing drones and looking for new sound textures to experiment with. She just released a NEW track called “under” on the label Deutsche Grammophon for the compilation “Project XI“.