Further Information

The Project

In the summer of 2020, Halldór Smárason’s debut album STARA will be released by Sono Luminus. The album will feature some of Halldór’s most notable works from recent years, including his three string quartets Stara, draw + play and BLAKTA, guitar solo piece Skúlptúr 1, as well as the chamber works aat_na and stop breathing. Following the release of the album, release concerts will be held in Hamrar, Ísafjörður and Kaldalón Hall in Harpa, Reykjavík.

Halldór Smárason

Halldór Smárason was born in Ísafjörður in 1989. He completed an Advanced Level Piano Examination in 2009, a B.A. degree in composition from the Iceland University of the Arts in 2012 and an M.M. degree from the Manhattan School of Music in 2014. Halldór has received numerous grants and awards, including a six-week residency at Civitella Ranieri in Umbria, Italy, Fulbright-grant and the artist's salaries four times, which are monthly wages for selected artists supported by the state of Iceland.

Halldór has worked with many renowned artists in Iceland and abroad, including Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and many respected chamber ensembles, including Ensemble intercontemporain. As a pianist, Halldór has performed on numerous occasions as a soloist or as part of various groups. See more about Halldór and his works at www.halldorsmarason.com.

Recordings

The recordings on STARA took place in Hamrar, the hall of the Ísafjörður Music School, in June 2019. Halldór received his first musical education in the school and therefore it felt like an appropriate venue for these recordings. A large group of musicians and technicians made their way to the Westfjords to make Halldór's dream come true, where the composer’s first musical ideas started emerging.

Siggi String Quartet is the main performer on the album. The quartet consists of Una Sveinbjarnardóttir and Helga Þóra Björgvinsdóttir on violin, Þórunn Ósk Marinósdóttir on viola and Sigurður Bjarki Gunnarsson on cello. Other musicians are Emilía Rós Sigfúsdóttir on flute, Geirþrúður Ása Guðjónsdóttir on violin, Gunnlaugur Björnsson on guitar, Helga Björg Arnardóttir on clarinet and Tinna Þorsteinsdóttir on piano.

Record Label

Sono Luminus will produce, license and release the album. The company releases a number of recordings each year, many of which have been nominated for Grammy Awards. The label has in recent years worked with several Icelandic composers and groups, including Anna Þorvaldsdóttir, Daníel Bjarnason, Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Nordic Affect. The producer of STARA is Dan Merceruio and the audio engineer is Daniel Shores.

Read more about Sono Luminus at www.sonoluminus.com.

Collaboration with Bert Yarborough

After getting acquainted at the Civitella Ranieri residence in Umbria, Italy in the spring of 2018 and seeing common characteristics in art creation, Yarborough and Smárason felt that they needed to work together. Now they are collaborating on a new piece based on the works from Smárason’s album. The visual elements will be based on the original notated scores composed by Smárason.

Working from digital scans of these compositions, Yarborough will visually reconstruct the scores through collage and mixed media materials. Both artists will process these new compositional constructions and develop multiple iterations resulting in a finished performance work, both visual and audio.

In support of the album's release, Yarborough has decided to offer a limited edition of digital reproductions of the artworks, based on the chamber piece stop breathing, featuring on STARA. One can choose from 13 different works, see them here: https://bit.ly/37lsYSx

Let’s do this!

The project is substantial and has received support from various sources. These include the Rannís and STEF recording funds, FÍH Cultural Fund and Straumar in addition to various companies.

Now we only need the final touch to finish the album and release it. Your support means a lot!

To the right, you can find various options to support the project: purchase the album, fine art by Bert Yarborough, or a musical performance by Sætabrauðsdrengirnir singing quartet.