Dark Music Days in Reykjavik

Georgia Browne teaches flute in the music department at Southampton University. She is a specialist in historical flute performance and is a member of a Icelandic ensemble Nordic Affect who perform new music on old instruments. Here she reports on their latest venture:

On 31 January Nordic Affect take to the stage at the international new music festival Dark Music Days in Reykjavjik, Iceland, where the ensemble is based. The festival is an important date in the new music calendar and Nordic Affect have been involved for the past 5 years premiering commissioned compositions by mostly Icelandic composers. This year sees collaborations with four Icelandic composers including the award winning Anna Þorvaldsdóttir. I will perform a solo work written for me in 2014 by British composer Rachel Stott. Entitled “The Dancing of the Sunbeams on the Sea” this evocative and rhythmically driving piece takes its inspiration from Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”. A regular visitor to Iceland, I particularly love the extreme conditions January brings to the island and have had many a hat, scarf and car door blown away by fierce north Atlantic winds!!