Further Information

Soprano Hallveig Rúnarsdóttir and pianist Ulrich Stærk release the album Songs of Longing and Love

The album features a new song cycle by Stefan Sand, composed to poetry by four Nordic women poets, which dialogues with Richard Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, also included on the album.

More details

Icelandic soprano Hallveig Rúnarsdóttir and Danish pianist Ulrich Stærk are releasing a new album titled Songs of Longing and Love. They commissioned composer Stefan Sand to write five songs based on poems by four Nordic women poets, each in a different Nordic language.

The poets are:

Anne Vad (Denmark)
Urd Johannesen (Faroe Islands)
Ingrid Storholmen (Norway)
Sigurbjörg Þrastardóttir (Iceland)

This new song cycle, Songs of Longing and Love, is presented alongside Richard Wagner’s famous Wesendonck Lieder (Fünf Gedichte von Mathilde Wesendonck), creating a thematic and emotional dialogue between the two works.

The album was recorded in Garnison Church in Copenhagen in May 2024 and June 2025, and will be released on October 25th with a launch concert in Norðurljós Hall at Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavík.

Tónmeistari er Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir.

About the composer

Stefan Sand is a young composer and conductor based in Iceland. Born in Denmark, he graduated in 2019 as a pianist and conductor from the Royal Danish Academy of Music (Det Kongelige Danske Musikkonservatorium). He then moved to Iceland and completed a master’s degree in composition from the Iceland University of the Arts in 2023.

Despite his young age, he has gained significant attention for his compositions and conducting, both in Iceland and across the Nordic region. Most recently, he received acclaim for the project Look at the Music, which he composed and conducted in Iceland and abroad last year. He was recently nominated for the Icelandic Performing Arts Awards (Gríman) for the project.

About the performers

Ulrich Stærk has had a long and distinguished career as a pianist and accompanist for singers and instrumentalists over the past 35 years, performing both in Denmark and internationally. He teaches vocal coaching and accompaniment at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.

Hallveig Rúnarsdóttir is one of Iceland’s most beloved sopranos. She has had a successful solo career both in Iceland and abroad for the past 30 years. She graduated from the Reykjavík College of Music in 1998 and from the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2001. Hallveig has previously released the album Í ást sólar with Árni Heimir Ingólfsson.