Svava Bernhardsdottir

Svava Bernhardsdottir, violist, is a versatile musician whose performances range from early music on historical instruments to contemporary music. She has performed on every continent of the world and taught at summer music festivals in Slovenia, Norway, the United States and Iceland. She has served as co-principal violist of both the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra and was principal violist in the Slovene Philharmonic String Orchestra which was awarded the Prešeren prize. Svava has held teaching positions at the Iceland Academy of the Arts and Ljubljana Music Academy (Slovenia). Svava is also a licensed Suzuki violin and viola teacher and teaches at the Kópavogur Music School and the Music High School (MÍT) in Reykjavík. Svava is currently a member of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

     Svava has appeared as soloist with the Slovene Philharmonic (Bartók), Iceland Symphony (Mozart) and The Juilliard Orchestra (Hindemith) as a winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition. She has recorded two solo albums: Svaviola and Svaviola II, the latter containing Icelandic viola music and Duo Freyja with Icelandic works for violin and viola, available on streaming platforms.

     Ms. Bernhardsdottir is an avid chamber musician and has performed with groups such as Camerarctica, The Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra, Nordic Affect, Caput and Duo Freyja among others.   

Svava holds Bachelor- and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from The Juilliard School, her teachers include Nobuko Imai, William Lincer and Karen Tuttle. She also studied early music with Jaap Schröder at Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland and performed and recorded with him in the Skálholt Quartet.