Little Seigla - Musical Puzzle

Performers

• Litla Seigla
• Áshildur Haraldsdóttir
• Ewa Murawska
• Wiesław Suruło
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  Erna Vala

  Erna Vala Arnardóttir pianist is founder and artistic director of Seigla. Erna Vala's performance career is marked by solo performances with orchestras and appearances at festivals worldwide. Notable events include the Ung Nordisk Musik Festival and Nordic Music Days in Reykjavík, Culture Night, Sígildir Sunnudagar, ISO's Our Classics and Seigla at Harpa Concert Hall, Last Rose of Summer in Germany, Concertos Comentarios, SIPO, Porto Pianofest in Portugal, Við Djúpið in Ísafjörður, Fulbright Arctic Initiative in Washington D.C., and the Albignac Piano Festival in France, among others. Erna Vala performs with various chamber groups such as the piano quartet No Name Ensemble and the chamber ensemble Elja. Erna Vala won the Young Soloists Competition of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in 2014 and the EPTA Piano Competition in Iceland in 2015. She was awarded the White Rose, a Finnish medal of honor, by President Sauli Niinistö in 2018 and a Fulbright Fellowship in 2019. Erna Vala holds a master's degree in piano performance from the Sibelius Academy earned in 2019 under the guidance of Hamsa Juris. Additionally, she received a master's degree in music education from the Iceland University of the Arts in 2023. She also holds a bachelor's degree and a junior department diploma in piano performance at the Iceland University of the Arts, where she studied with Peter Máté. She is currently based in London working on PhD Performance Research at Royal Academy of Music. As an enthusiastic advocate for fostering positive communities, Erna Vala serves as the founder and president of the Icelandic Schumann Society. This non-profit cultural foundation is dedicated to supporting a healthy and active music scene in Iceland.

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  Seigla Festival's Final Recital

  Seigla Festival is a classical music festival held in Harpa on the 5th-7th of August. Browse the festival programme on our website at: seiglafestival.com Seigla Festival’s final recital features music by American and Nordic composers, starting with Hallelujah Junction, a two piano piece by John Adams. The main characteristics are short rhythmic patterns that echo between the two instruments, and serve as an analogy for how traffic at a junction moves. The rhythmic patterns of the opening derive from the word „Hallelujah“, where the accent lands on the third syllable, through which one might hear the rhythm of the pianos say “llelujah, llelujah, llelujah…”. The two instrumentalists play the rhythms at a slight delay, creating a sense of planned resonance or echo. Hallelujah Junction is loosely structured into three contrasting movements whereas the music flows in gradual changes towards the final moments: a true onomatopoeic feast. Here, we get to hear the rhythmic pattern of the full four syllables in the word „Hallelujah“ as well as the „Junction“ being thrown rapturously between the two instruments. Despite the fact that the Nordic composers and contemporaries Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius never managed to actually meet in person, they respected one another’s music and even wrote letters stating their mutual admiration. Both were big admirers of the German Lied and wrote significant collections in the style. Six Songs, Op. 48, by Edvard Grieg are among his best known and beloved. After the intermission we will hear three short and romantic solo pieces by Jean Sibelius from his Ten Pieces for Piano, Op. 24. Sibelius’ larger-scale pieces are by far his best known, his symphonies and violin concerto, but he also wrote a considerable amount of incredibly beautiful lieder, chamber pieces and piano pieces which are seldom performed. Seigla Festival’s Final Recital concludes with Amy Beach’s songs for voice, violin, cello and piano. Beach was the first American woman to achieve widespread recognition as a composer. An incredible artist and pioneer, she wrote over 150 songs to poems both by herself and others, and often influenced by folk music. Performers: Hlín Pétursdóttir Behrens, soprano Vera Hjördís Matsdóttir, soprano Ólafur Freyr Birkisson, bass baritone Gunnhildur Daðadóttir, violinist Guðný Jónasdóttir, cellist Elisabeth Streichert, pianist Erna Vala Arnardóttir, pianist Pétur Ernir Svavarsson, pianist