{"id":1613,"date":"2014-10-24T12:30:13","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T12:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/listvinafelag.is\/?page_id=1613"},"modified":"2021-09-16T15:00:36","modified_gmt":"2021-09-16T15:00:36","slug":"the-hallgrimskirkja-motet-choir","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/listvinafelag.is\/en\/the-hallgrimskirkja-motet-choir\/","title":{"rendered":"The Motet Choir"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"motettukor\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Motet Choir<\/strong> was founded in 1982 and has long been one of the preeminent choirs of Iceland. H\u00f6r\u00f0ur \u00c1skelsson has been its conductor since its inception.<\/p>\n

The choir\u2019s repertoire is extensive and multifaceted, and includes numerous oratorios, passions and requiems, a cappella pieces from various periods and also Icelandic compositions that the choir has premiered.<\/p>\n

The Motet Choir has toured numerous times, sung in many major cathedrals of Europe and participated in music festivals such as the Bergen International Festival, the Nordic Church Music Symposium in Gothenburg and the Wiener Festwochen in Vienna. The choir has also participated in international choir competitions, most recently in J\u016brmala, Latvia, in the fall of 2018. It won a prize at the Cork International Choral Festival in 1996 and took home three gold medals as well as the Grand Prix from the 2014 International Choir Competition and Festival Can\u00e7\u00f3 Mediterr\u00e0nia.<\/p>\n

Among the big productions that the Motet Choir has performed are works such as George Frideric Handel\u2019s Messiah, J.S.Bach\u2019s St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Christmas Oratorio and the Mass in B minor, Mozart\u2019s Requiem and Great Mass in C minor, the requiems of Durufl\u00e9 and Faur\u00e9, Mendelssohn\u2019s oratorios Elijah and St. Paul, Rachmaninoff\u2019s All-Night Vigil, Frank Martin\u2019s Mass for Double Choir and the German Requiem of Johannes Brahms. The choir has twice been nominated as Performer of the Year in Classical and Contemporary Music at the Icelandic Music Awards, in 2012 for their performance of Beethoven\u2019s 9th Symphony (with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra) and in 2015 for their performance of Handel\u2019s Solomon at the Festival of Sacred Arts in Hallgr\u00edmskirkja.<\/p>\n

The Motet Choir regularly performs with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, most recently in the fall of 2020 for the concert series \u201cKlass\u00edkin okkar\u201d (\u201cFavorite Classics\u201d) where they performed a chorus from St. John\u2019s passion. In April of 2018, the choir took part in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra\u2019s showings with live music of Milos\u030c Forman\u2019s film \u201cAmadeus\u201d; later that same year, the Motet Choir performed the final movement of Mahler\u2019s Resurrection Symphony with the orchestra. In addition, the choir has performed several celebrated concerts with the International Baroque Orchestra (formerly known as The Hague International Baroque Orchestra).<\/p>\n

Among the Icelandic works that the Motet Choir has premiered are the oratorio \u201cMysterium\u201d by Hafli\u00f0i Hallgr\u00edmsson in 2019 as well as his \u201cPass\u00eda\u201d in 2001 (which was last performed on Good Friday in 2015); \u201cFl\u00e9ttu\u201d by Haukur T\u00f3masson at the Reykjav\u00edk Arts Festival of 2011, which was subsequently released on CD and DVD; and the oratorio \u201cCec\u00edlia\u201d by \u00c1skel M\u00e1sson and Thor Vilhj\u00e1lmsson in 2009, which was nominated as composition of the year at the Icelandic Music Awards.<\/p>\n

The Hallgr\u00edmskirkja Motet Choir has published many recordings and received international praise for their performance of Durufl\u00e9\u2019s Requiem and the Pass\u00eda of Hafli\u00f0i Hallgr\u00edmsson. The Swedish record label BIS has released the Motet Choir and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra\u2019s performances of J\u00f3n Leifs\u2019 works. The choir\u2019s Christmas CDs are as much a popular staple of the Icelandic Advent as its yearly Christmas concerts are a staple of the cultural life in Reykjav\u00edk. In 2011, the record \u201cHeil\u00f6g stund \u00e1 j\u00f6r\u00f0\u201d (\u201cHoly Times on Earth\u201d), a recording of the previous year\u2019s sold-out Christmas concert with opera singer Kristinn Sigmundsson, first came out.<\/p>\n

In late 2008, \u201cLj\u00f3si\u00f0 \u00feitt l\u00fdsi m\u00e9r\u201d (\u201cMay your light shine on me\u201d), a recording of Icelandic sacred music, was published and later sold out – however, 2011 saw a second, special edition of the record, which included a documentation of the choir\u2019s national tour by Heimir Hl\u00f6\u00f0versson.<\/p>\n

All of the choir\u2019s published works are available on Spotify and YouTube.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Motet Choir was founded in 1982 and has long been one of the preeminent choirs of Iceland. H\u00f6r\u00f0ur \u00c1skelsson has been its conductor since its [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1613","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/listvinafelag.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/listvinafelag.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/listvinafelag.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listvinafelag.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listvinafelag.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/listvinafelag.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1613\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/listvinafelag.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}