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.