Dana Michel is a live artist working where improvisation, choreography, sculpture, comedy, hip-hop, poetry, and social observation collide. Her performances operate as open systems: precise, disarming, and deeply human.

Coming to dance later in life after a career in marketing and competitive sports, Michel has since become one of the most singular voices in contemporary performance. Her work has been internationally recognized with honors including the Silver Lion for Innovation in Dance at the Venice Biennale, the ImPulsTanz Award, and the Jacqueline-Lemieux Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Based in Montréal, she is currently touring four solo works - YELLOW TOWEL, MERCURIAL GEORGE, CUTLASS SPRING, and MIKE. In 2024, she received the Prix de la Danse de Montréal for International Distribution.

This evening, Dana Michel will be in conversation with Arnbjörg María Danielsen, opening space for reflection on practice, presence, and what brings her to Iceland.

+ ENGLISH +

Dear Carolyn is a staged letter addressed to the composer Carolyn Chen, a friend of composer and performer Berglind María Tómasdóttir. The work weaves together reflections on memory and remembering, expressed through spoken word, sound, and images.

Dear Carolyn has a running time of just over half an hour.

Kambríum is a soundscape of flutes upon flutes. The work is improvised and spontaneous, continuously adapting to the space in which it is performed.

Berglind María Tómasdóttir is a flutist and composer based in Reykjavík, Iceland. Her work frequently explores identities, archetypes, and music as a social phenomenon across different media. She has collaborated with composers such as Björk, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, Peter Ablinger, and Carolyn Chen, and has received commissions from Dark Music Days, the National Flute Association, Sequences Art Festival, Reykjavík Arts Festival, and Nordic Music Days, among others. Her album Ethereality received the 2022 Icelandic Music Awards Album of the Year. Berglind holds degrees in flute performance from the Reykjavík College of Music and the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, as well as a DMA from the University of California, San Diego. She is a professor at the Iceland University of the Arts.

Björg Brjánsdóttir, flutist, works with a wide range of ensembles and musical projects across genres. In recent years, she has focused on close collaborations with composers, premiering new works for flute as well as composing her own music.

bjorgbrjansdottir.net

+ ÍSLENSKA +

Ykkur er boðið á tvískiptan viðburð þar sem Berglind María Tómasdóttir og Björg Brjánsdóttir flytja verk sín.

Ókeypis inn.

Um verkin:

Berglind María Tómasdóttir:

Dear Carolyn er sviðsett bréf tileinkað tónskáldinu Carolyn Chen, vinkonu höfundar og flytjanda verksins, Berglindar Maríu Tómasdóttur. Í verkinu fléttast saman hugleiðingar um minni og minningar, settar fram í tali, hljóði og myndum.
Dear Carolyn er rúmur hálftími að lengd.

Björg Brjánsdóttir:

Kambríum er hljóðheimur — flautur á flautur ofan. Verkið er spunakennt og spontant og lagar sig að rýminu þar sem það er flutt.

Berglind María Tómasdóttir er flautuleikari og tónskáld sem vinnur þvert á miðla. Í verkum sínum kannar hún ímyndir, erkitýpur og tónlist sem félagslegt fyrirbæri. Sem flautuleikari hefur Berglind komið fram víðs vegar um heim og leikið inn á fjölda hljóðrita, meðal annars sem einleikari með Sinfóníuhljómsveit Íslands undir stjórn Vladimir Ashkenazy. Plata hennar Ethereality var valin plata ársins á Íslensku tónlistarverðlaununum 2022. Verk hennar hafa verið pöntuð og flutt meðal annars af Flautusamtökum Bandaríkjanna, Norrænum músíkdögum, Sequences, Myrkra músíkdögum og Listahátíð í Reykjavík. Berglind stundaði nám í flautuleik við Tónlistarskólann í Reykjavík og Konunglega danska konservatoríið í Kaupmannahöfn og lauk doktorsprófi frá Kaliforníuháskóla í San Diego árið 2013. Hún er prófessor við Listaháskóla Íslands.

Björg Brjánsdóttir, flautuleikari, vinnur með fjölbreyttum hópum þvert á tónlistarstefnur. Hún hefur á síðari árum einbeitt sér að samstarfi við tónskáld, frumflutningi nýrra verka fyrir þverflautu og samið eigin tónlist.

bjorgbrjansdottir.net

Join us for SIC TRANSIT, a house warming gathering to celebrate our new home at Grandagarður 5. Come by for a drink, a chat, and a glimpse into what’s to come.

On view are images from the flood at Fiskislóð, captured by Arnbjörg María Daníelsen, marvaða’s artistic director. They are fragments of transition and transformation, marking the shift from one space to another.

marvaða invites you to an unforgettable evening at Iðnó — a powerful convergence of artists from across marvaða’s creative nebula, presented in partnership with Iceland Airwaves. For this marvaða moment, diverse artistic energies will collide into a live, atmospheric unfolding of sound, movement, and experimentation. marvaða is cosmic laboratory for new ideas: fluid, radiant, and alive with possibility. This is the inaugural marvaða partner event at Iceland Airwaves and it promises to be nothing short of electric.

19:45—general admission/doors

20:00—marvaða performances featuring:

viibra, Gyða Valtýsdóttir, Salka Valsdóttir, CYBER, Mr. Silla, Farao and knackered.

The Icelandic flute septet viibra performs four works from their celebrated debut album viibra, released last year, which explores the possibilities of expanded flute playing.

The album exemplifies their collective creative prowess, inviting friends and collaborators along for the journey. viibra was founded in 2016 to support Björk’s album Utopia and are best known for their dynamic role in Björk’s highly praised theatrical concert Cornucopia, which viibra performed in from 2018 to 2023. Margrét Bjarnadóttir, artist and choreographer, has worked with viibra on stage movements for almost seven years and joins them for this unique concert experience. Bjarnadóttir has an enigmatic way of weaving together movements in flow with the flutes that take the music to new depths.

Áshildur Haraldsdóttir: flute
Berglind María Tómasdóttir: flute
Dagný Marinósdóttir: flute
Sólveig Magnúsdóttir: flute
Þurídur Jónsdóttir: flute
Choreography: Margrét Bjarnadóttir

CYBER releases new album SAD :’( delivering a sonic exploration of the band members' experience of teendom. On this occasion, we would like to invite you to marvaða móment #3, CYBER’s release concert. The album transports listeners into the inner realm of two teenagers sharing a bedroom inside a Greek amphitheater where audiences spectate and speculate their every move. SAD :’( pulls from genres such as college rock, bedroom pop, hyperpop, and emo to produce an energetic and emotional roller coaster that catapults you back to your vulnerable early adulthood.

Gyða Valtýsdóttir returns to Harpa’s stage for a new interpretation of Epicycle. In this unique performance, Gyða weaves together ancient and contemporary influences. Her captivating arrangements bring the music of visionary composers like the 12th-century mystic Hildegard von Bingen and the eclectic 20th-century inventor Harry Partch into conversation with the striking sonic landscapes of modern musicians such as Skúli Sverrisson, Daníel Bjarnason, Úlfur Hansson, Kjartan Sveinsson, and Ólöf Arnalds, all of whom contributed to her critically acclaimed album Epicycle II. The album stands as an ode to collaboration, to the people who have inspired and influenced Gyða with their shared visions.

The performance at Harpa will include musicians Frank Aarnink, Daníel Friðrik Böðvarsson, Úlfur Hansson, Júlía Mogensen, Ólafur Björn Ólafsson, Kjartan Sveinsson, Skúli Sverrisson, and the choir Kliður. Don't miss this rare opportunity to experience the evocative, immersive world of Gyða Valtýsdóttir live.

Within the vast Eldborg Hall of Harpa, Reykjavik, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and marvaða will present RITUAL to close this year’s Arctic Circle Assembly, in partnership with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. RITUAL is not a concert in the conventional sense. It is an invocation, a shared gesture of purpose, where music becomes a vessel for something larger. Rituals have long served as a bridge between humans and the sacred forces of nature, honouring glaciers, rivers, and forests as living entities. As time and water reshape our sacred landscapes, we unite in music and song to transform grief into collective strength. We offer not merely a reflection, but an act of transformation—grief drawn from the earth’s wounds becoming a source of collective strength.

Conceived by director Arnbjörg María Danielsen, with composer Viktor Orri Árnason and Yo-Yo Ma, with text by Andri Snær Magnason and ancient Icelandic poets, this ritual offers a spiritual response to the overwhelming reality of a changing planet. A multitude of artists lend their voices and instruments to this living composition; each presence contributing to the dense weave of sound and silence.

On Sunday, May 26th, 2024, the Icelandic flute septet viibra celebrate the release of their highly anticipated debut album with a captivating concert at Norðurljós Harpa. This special performance marks a significant milestone for the group, with four pieces from their self-titled album premiering live on stage.

The viibra album showcases the septet’s collective creative prowess, exploring the possibilities of expanded flute playing while inviting a range of collaborators to join them on their artistic journey. Founded in 2016 to support Björk’s Utopia album, viibra has since become known for their dynamic contributions to Björk’s theatrical concert Cornucopia, which they performed in from 2018 to 2023.

This concert was further enriched by the collaboration with Margrét Bjarnadóttir, an artist and choreographer who has worked with the septet on stage movements for nearly seven years. Margrét's unique ability to weave movement in harmony with the flutes brought new depth to the music, transforming the performance into an immersive, multidimensional experience.