Hamrahlidarkorinn - Come Be Joyful (CD)

Icelandic Choral Music from Björk's Cornucopia Tour

Hamrahlidarkorinn, Borgedur Ingolfsdottir

CD

CD (Compact Disc)

Conventional CD, playable with all CD players and computer drives, but also with most SACD or multiplayers.

deliverable within 2-3 weeks (if available from supplier)

Current price: EUR 16.99

Shipping (United States of America): EUR 19.90

Iceland, Beloved Country; Make Verses, Maestro; Vatnenda-Rosa's Verses; We Stood in the Meadow; The Blue and Brightly Shining Star; The Deceptive World; Dance Song; Sonnets / Unrealities XI; Cosmogony; Autumn Verses to the Virgin Mary; A Mary Poem; The Lover in the Red Forest; Come and Be Joyful; Fair Little Friends

Artists:: Hamrahlidarkorinn, Borgedur Ingolfsdottir
Label:: One Little Independent
Year of recording ca.:: 2019
Item number:: 10354766
UPC/EAN:: 5016958097103
Release date:: 11.12.2020

Product Information

The Hamrahlid Choir has been at the forefront of Icelandic musical life for more than four decades. Its members are former students at Hamrahlid College in Reykjavík, where Pergerour Ingolfsdottir formed a choir in 1967 and was its conductor until 2017. This was among the first college choirs in Iceland, and has maintained its leading position ever since. In 1982, Pergerour formed the Hamrahlid Choir, an ensemble made up of graduates of the college choir, and she has been its conductor ever since. More than 2,500 Icelandic teenagers have come into contact with classical music through the Hamrahlid choral experience. Many of these have had no prior musical training, but through diligent practice they have gone on to participate in music-making of the highest quality, from new Icelandic compositions to the choral masterworks of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart.

The Hamrahlid Choir has been a breeding ground for many of Iceland's leading singers, instrumentalists, and composers. Alongside Björk, the many musicians who are former members of the choir include pianist Vikingur Olafsson, composer Haukur Tómasson (recipient of the Nordic Council Music Prize 2004), musicologist Arni Heimir Ingólfsson, and bass Kristinn Sigmundsson (a frequent guest at the Metropolitan Opera stage). Although the Hamrahlid Choir is primarily devoted to musical education, it has from the very beginning been dedicated to giving performances of the highest quality.

The choir sings with a pure, flexible, well-blended sound, and it performs with exuberance and a youthful sense of discovery. Critics throughout the world have praised its accurate intonation, clear diction, and the high level of enthusiasm and commitment that are among the hallmarks of the choir's music-making. Throughout its history, the choir has collaborated closely with Icelandic composers. Over 100 works have been composed especially for the choir, including works by virtually all of Iceland's leading composers. Apart from its close association with native composers, the choir has collaborated with foreign artists such as Arvo Pärt, John Cage, and Vagn Holmboe in the first Icelandic performances of their works. Arvo Pärt was so impressed with the choir's performance of his Te Deum in 1998 that he composed a choral work dedicated to Pergerour Ingolfsdottir, ...which was the son of..., which was premiered in 2000. With its dedication, passion, and spirit, the Hamrahlid Choir has touched audiences around the world. The Choir has travelled to 24 countries and has performed at many of the world's leading choral festivals to great acclaim, introducing audiences around the world to the rich legacy of Icelandic choral music.