Culture Night – Another unforgettable Reykjavik experience

We were looking forward to this year’s Culture Night (Menningarnótt) with anticipation and the events did not disappoint. It began with the thrill of running a 10K race (my muscles are still sore) with a few thousand enthusiasts and it continued with the opening of our Residence in the afternoon.

We welcomed hundreds of visitors and among them there was a lucky group that got to listen to the performance by trumpet virtuosos Stephen Burns and Baldvin Odsson along with pianist Mattias Wager. They performed works by Telemann, Vivaldi, and American composer Aaron Copland.  We were touched by the warm comments of many of the guests who had never been to the residence.  The day ended with a spectacular display of fireworks at the harbor.

Trumpet and organ concert at Hallgrímskirkja

The Hallgrímskirkja Festival of the Sacred Arts hosted a fabulous program on August 22.  American trumpet virtuoso Stephen Burns teamed up with Icelandic wunderkind Baldvin Oddsson, and American organ virtuoso Douglas Cleveland to fill the church with the joyous sound of pieces by Telemann, Nicholas Bruhns, Julian Wachner, James Stephenson, Louis Marchand, and the all-time classic Vivaldi. Every seat of the church was filled.  The audience expressed its deep appreciation for the music with enthusiastic and extended applause at the end of the program.  Those of us who had never heard musical pieces orchestrated with a trumpet and organ were simply blown away by the performance and left asking for more, much more.  We were encouraged to hear that Burns and Cleveland might team up to produce a CD in the future. It would be well worth the wait.

The Festival of Sacred Music at Hallgrímskirkja

Hallgrímskirkja is an icon in Reykjavik and a temple not only of worship to God but to music. Over the last few years we have enjoyed many concerts and performances at the church so when we learned that American virtuoso organist Douglas Cleveland would be performing at the 13 Arts (Kirkjulistahátíð), we jumped at the opportunity to support it.  The opening ceremony witnessed magnificent performances by the Schola Cantorum, the Festival String Ensemble, and Douglas Cleveland as well as a haunting dance by Sigríður Soffía Níelsdottir. The performance that stunned everyone was one of the doves released by Sigríður Soffía which landed on Mary’s head and stayed put until the end of the performance.

Douglas Cleveland’s uplifting performance

The next day we attended an unforgettable performance by Douglas Cleveland, who hails from Reykjavík’s sister city Seattle. He selected pieces that demonstrated both his range and versatility. The program began with Mozart’s Fantasia in F Minor; a piece of impossible complexity originally written for a music box inside a clock. He followed it with Prelude and Fughe in E-Flat Major by C. Saint Saens, and with Kairos by Pamela Decker which one could easily imagine as the music that accompanied the creation of the cosmos. He closed the program with Elegy by Ken Yuki and Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 42 by A. Guilmant.   Both of these were at once overwhelming and exhilarating.

Douglas will be performing again on Thursday when he teams with two trumpet players, Stephen Burns from Chicago and Baldvin Oddsson. They will perform pieces by Telemann, Nicholaus Bruhns, James Stephenson, Louis Marchand, and Vivaldi.

Meeting Mary Ellen Mark and Effi Ingólfsson

This past week Mary and I had the pleasure of meeting American Master Photographer Mary Ellen Mark and her filmmaker husband, Martin Bell, who were in Iceland to conduct a seminar on photography and film in partnership with Effi Ingólfsson and Inga Jóhannsdóttir. During an unforgettable dinner hosted by Effi and Inga and expertly prepared by the incomparable Áslaug Snorradóttir, we had the opportunity to meet a group of extraordinary students from every part of the globe and to see the fruit of their work the next day at an exhibit at Iceland’s National Museum. It was not surprising to see the results of the partnership between Mary Ellen and Effi as both are magnificent photographers. We hope to see a repeat of this seminar as it is an incredible opportunity for Icelandic photography and art students to learn from two of the best.

Joshua Redman shakes Harpa

Harpa has become the pre-eminent showcase for the performing arts in Iceland and in its relatively short existence it has hosted world class acts.  On Saturday night the Joshua Redman Quartet wowed the audience with an energetic concert that brought everyone to their feet.  The Quartet opened with its own version of George Gershwin’s Summertime.  He followed with a broad range of pieces composed by Redman and members of his quartet and even a piece by the greatest composer of all--Johann Sebastian Bach.

While jazz’s roots are American, we are delighted to see it embraced the world over and enhanced by contributions from practically every culture.  We are very proud to once again support the Reykjavik Jazz Festival and to bring to Iceland music that brings our people together.

Seattle – Iceland connection keeps growing

We welcomed representatives from Green River Community College who are visiting Iceland to explore collaborative arrangements with Keilir Insitute and with GeoCamp Iceland. We were not surprised that they were awestruck by Iceland’s beauty and that they saw enormous possibilities for cooperation with Keilir and GeoCamp. This potential cooperation would strengthen our educational exchanges and ties between the Seattle area and Iceland.  In fact, Margrét Soffia Björnsdottir will be joining the faculty of Green River as an artist and Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence for the fall 2013 semester, further strengthening a developing relationship.

Trip addendum -- An unlikely weather trifecta

During our most recent trip to the north we hit a most unlikely weather trifecta. On the first day of our trip we were in the Árnes area which recorded the day’s highest temperature in the country. The next day we were in Húsavik, which also recorded the day’s highest temperature of the country. The next day we were in Siglufjördur, which also happened to reach the day’s highest temperature in the country.  I thought that some enterprising travel operator could develop a tour around the concept of chasing the highest temperature in the country – a variation of American storm chasers.