Choir concert in Hallgrimskirkja on All Saint’s Day
Sunday November 6th at 5 pm

SCHOLA CANTORUM
chamber choir of Hallgrimskirkja

Conductor Hörður Áskelsson

ADMISSION: ISK 3500
Ticket sale in Hallgrímskirkja  tel. 510 1000 and online www.midi.is

All Saints‘ day is celebrated on the first Sunday of November. It is a day of remembrance for the faithful – to reflect on and express gratitude for their loved ones who have died. Many beautiful sacred compositions – requiems, motets and hymns – are connected to this day. It has been a tradition for many years at Hallgrímskirkja to celebrate All Saints‘ day with a concert.

In this year’s concert, Schola Cantorum, The Chamber Choir of Hallgrímskirkja, presents sacred compositions by contemporary composers known for their beautiful musical language, that connects the past and the present.

The concert‘s leitmotif is Requiem,  which will be performed in two different compositions by Sigurður Sævarsson ( Premiére) and the Norwegian composer Kjell Mörk Karlsen. Sigurður Sævarsson wrote his Requiem in remembrance of his father and Kjell Mörk Karlsen’s Requiem is in memorial of his wife who passed away 2 years ago. A new work by Hugi Guðmundsson will also be performed, it is written in memory of his beloved father Guðmundur Hallgrímsson who was a great supporter of the arts at Hallgrímskirkja and died 3 years ago.

All these compositions fit particularly well to the magnificent sound space of Hallgrímskirkja.  Conductor is Hörður Áskelsson.

Schola cantorum’s latest album, MEDITATIO, has just been released by the Swedish label BIS. It includes expressive works for choir from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries which interpret grief and bereavement in the light of hope and comfort.

Among the selected works are John Tavener’s simple but stirring The Lamb, Eric Whitacre’s unearthly Lux aurumque and two of the most beautiful Icelandic choir pieces ever written: Jon Leifs’ Requiem for the young daughter he lost and Thorkell Sigurbjornsson’s Heyr himna smiður (Hear Heaven’s Maker), considered by many to be the most beautiful choral piece ever written in Iceland. The CD is sold in Hallgrímskirkja and in all major CD  stores around the world.