About the festival
Reykjavík Early Music Festival is the first international early music festival in Reykjavík, which was launched in March 2024 in Harpa Concert Hall. The festival team, led by artistic director and violinist Elfa Rún Kristinsdóttir, has created a unique platform for the collaboration of Icelandic and international music groups that specialize in historical performance practice.
The first edition of the festival offered a varied programme with both up and coming and world renowned musicians who performed in 4 evening concerts over three days. Highlight of the festival was the concert of the polish group Arte dei Suonatori together with superstar Rachel Podger, a concert that received outstanding reviews in the Icelandic press. The festival also offered free lunch concerts and a masterclass for advanced music students as well as off venue events in bars around Harpa.
The second edition of the festival will offer cross-cultural experience that brings together some of the world's most talented musicians and ensembles, from the iconic Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin to innovative local performers, like the group Gadus Morhua Ensemble. The festival offers concerts with well known repertoire, but not often performed in Iceland, like the Goldberg Variations in the interpretation of the celebrated polish harpsichordist Marcin Swiatkiewitcz, as well as hidden treasures from the 17th century performed by the international ensemble Concerto Scirocco, which will be bringing instruments to Iceland which almost never get played there, like Zink and Sackbuts. The Icelandic Barokkbandið Brák will celebrate their 10th anniversary, and the same is the case for the finnish baroque group Espoon Barokki, who will present their Early Bird programme in Iceland for the first time.
Festival organizers
Artistic director
elfarun.com
General manager and financial manager
Public Relations
herdisanna.com
Marketing
Graphic designer