:: Karolina Eiriksdottir

Voice

The Caregivers

soprano, oboe and women's choir
14'

The Caregivers is written in cooperation with visual artists Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson.

Music video. 14 mint / color / sound / language English / subtitles English and Italian

The music-video Caregivers portrays two migrant care-givers from Ukraine and Romania and their (elderly) clients in their relationship and daily work in the area of Rovereto. The work combines visual arts, journalism and classical contemporary music. It ́s structure is conceived roughly as a (pop)music video intertwined with documentary and home-video portrayal, juxtaposing the video images with a newspaper article which has been turned into a classical-contemporary music piece.
The writer is a young Italian-American journalist Davide Berretta.
Premiere:
THE EUROPEAN BIENNIAL
OF CONTEMPORARY ART
TRENTINO – SOUTH TYROL, ITALY
19 JULY – 2 NOVEMBER 2008
The music is recorded in Iceland and performed by soprano Ingibjörg Guðjónsdóttir, oboe player Matthías Nardeau and the Women's Choir of Garðabær.

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The Icelandic Constitution

for soprano, baritone, piano, double bass and mixed choir.
40'
2008

This is a joint production of the visual art duo Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson and Karólína Eiríksdóttir.

Premiere: Ketilhúsið in Akureyri on March 15th 2008, at 2 pm. Ingibjörg Guðjónsdóttir, soprano, Bergþór Pálsson, baritone, Tinna Thorsteinsdóttir, pianist, Gunnlaugur Torfi Stefánsson, bass player and the chamber choir Hymnodia directed by Eyþór Ingi Jónsson.

The performance is a part of the Art exhibition Bye-bye Iceland, which opens the same day at the Akureyri Art Museum.

[Search for"The Icelandic Constitution" on Google]

Njóla

soprano and piano
4'30''

Njóla (Night) is composed to text by Björn Gunnlaugsson (1788-1876). Björn Gunnlaugsson was a mathematician and teacher at The Bessastaðir School. The poem is a philosophical and astromonical description of the universe in rhyme.
Premiere: A program in celebration of the 200th anniversary of The Bessastaðir School.
Álftanes: December 1st, 2007.
Ingibjörg Guðjónsdóttir, soprano, Tinna Thorsteinsdóttir, piano.

[Search for"Njóla" on Google]

Sólin er runnin upp - The Sun has ascended

Soprano and piano
2'
2002
Text by Hannes Pétursson

Composed for the celebration of the poet Hannes Pétursson's 70th birthday. Premiered at a gathering in his honor by Ingibjörg Guðjónsdóttir, soprano and Valgerður Andrésdóttir, piano.

Að iðka gott til æru - Prizing Virtue

"Prizing Virtue" was written by commission from the Skálholt Summer Festival for mezzosoprano Ásgerður Júníusdóttir, a chamber choir and four instruments. There are three movements, each built on material from tunes from old Icelandic manuscripts. The composer uses various compositional methods, both modern and traditional.

Premiere: Skalholt Summer Concerts Festival, July 14th 2001, Ásgerður Júníusdóttir, mezzosoprano, Peter Tompkins, oboe, Jónína Auður Hilmarsdóttir, viola, Sigurður Bjarki Gunnarsson, cello, Helga Ingólfsdóttir, harpsichord, Suðurland Chamber Choir, dir. Hilmar Örn Agnarsson

Snæfellsjökull gengur á land

Mánuðurinn mars

CD:
SMK 21 Minn heimur og þinn – Ásgerður Júníusdóttir, mezzosoprano: Ásgerður
Júníusdóttir, mezzosoprano and Steinunn Birna Ragnarsdóttir, piano

Living by the sea - Heimkynni við sjó

The song cycle Living by the Sea appeared in 1997, with poems from Hannes Pétursson´s book of the same name (1980). The book contains sixty poems whose central theme is the poet´s home environment on the Álftanes Peninsula near Reykjavík. Karólína has chosen nine of these poems for her cycle, all reflecting man´s relationship with his environment.
Ingibjörg Guðjónsdóttir and Tinna Thorsteinsdóttir for whom the work was written, first performed this cycle in the National Art Gallery in Reykjavík on 19 April 1998.

CD:
smk 13 Karólína Eiríksdóttir - Spil: Ingibjörg Guðjónsdóttir, soprano and Tinna Þorsteinsdóttir, piano

Sem dropi tindrandi

Sem dropi tindrandi was premiered at a gathering in the honour of Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, former president of Iceland. It is dedicated to her.

Sjávarsteinn

Frábæra, bæra

Na Carenza

Na Carenza was written at the request of Austrian musicologist Regina Himmelbauer. Her idea was to get female composers from all over the world to write music to the text of female troubadors from medieval times. A good amount of their poetry has survived but none of their music. Na Carenza was premiered at an International Festival of Female Composers in Vienna in 1995. The Icelandic premiere took place in Skálholt in 2001. The piece has also been performed in Holland.

Premiere: Vienna, 9th International Congress on Women in Music: April 30th 1995, Kristin Nordeval, mezzosoprano

Ljóðnámuland - Land Posessed by Poems

Land Posessed by Poems is from 1987, part of a collective project of the Nordic Conservatories and NOMUS. The piece was premiered in Gothenburg by Kristinn Sigmundsson and Guðríður St. Sigurðardóttir.

CD:
ITM 7-01 Karólína Eiríksdóttir - Portrait: Kristinn Sigmundsson, baritone,
Guðríður St. Sigurðardóttir, piano.

Sumir dagar - Some Days

Soprano, fl., cl., vlc. & pno. or soprano fl., cl.,vlc., harps. & guit.
1982
ca. 12'30''
Text by Þorsteinn frá Hamri
6 poems: Gunnarshólmi, Eign, Sannleikurinn, Í hrapinu, Kvöld, Sumir dagar

Some Days was written in 1982 for soprano, flute, clarinet, cello and piano. In 1991 the piece was reorchestrated for soprano, flute, clarinet, cello, guitar and harpsichord.

Premiere: Musica Nova at the Nordic House in Reykjavík: Feb. 21st 1982
Signý Sæmundsdóttir, Bernard Wilkinson, Einar Jóhannesson, Gunnar Kvaran, Guðríður St. Sigurðardóttir

Six Poems from the Japanese

Six Poems from the Japanese were composed in 1977 and premiered in Ann Arbor, Michigan the same year.
Japanese poetry is very concise and consequently the music consists of six miniatures.