The WSO New Music Festival kicks off Saturday January 28. True to the
festival's Nordic theme, five brilliant Icelandic composers will be
featured during the festival which runs until February 3.
Winnipeg composer Matthew Patton believes that Kjartan Sveinsson, Daniel Bjarnason, Valgeir Sigurdsson, Atli Heimir Sveinsson and Johann Johannsson
are part of a critical mass of genius developing in the land of fire
and ice that is creating a new paradigm in the world of classical music.
That
statement might surprise many people. Not Icelanders. Not even West
Icelanders, those of us North Americans who trace our heritage to
Iceland. Here are some points about Iceland that aren't common
knowledge.
Iceland was the first country to record it's own
beginnings. It was a Viking society which decided in the year 930 that
to prevent bloodshed it must live by the rule of law and create what has
become the longest continuous parliamentary system in the history of
the world. Thingvellir was formed 285 years before the signing of the Magna Carta.
Iceland has the highest per capita rate of publication in the world.
Views of Kildonan Settlers bridge, Main Street and North Kildonan