Performers & composers

The Hallgrímskirkja Motet Choir

The Hallgrímskirkja Motet Choir has long established itself as one of the leading choirs in Iceland. Its large and diverse repertoire includes numerous oratorios, passions and requiems, together with a cappella sacred music from various periods and premieres of many Icelandic compositions.

The choir was founded in the autumn of 1982 by its director Hörður Áskelsson. It has performed all the great works by J.S. Bach for soli, choir and orchestra and many of his cantatas, Requiems by Mozart, Duruflé and Fauré, Paulus and Elijah by Mendelssohn and Saul by Handel. It has also performed from the a cappella treasures by Schütz, Purcell, Brahms, Bruckner, Duruflé, Messiaen, Frank Martin, Arvo Pärt, Rachmaninoff, Otto Olsson and Knut Nystedt. From the Icelandic sacred choir repertoire the choir has given first performances of numerous works by Áskell Másson, Atli Heimir Sveinsson, Gunnar Reynir Sveinsson, Jón Ásgeirsson, Jón Hlöðver Áskelsson, Matins in Spring by Jón Nordal, Passía by Hafliði Hallgrímsson, Jólaóratóría by John Speight and various motets, hymns and liturgical music by Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson.

During the 2005-6 season the Motet Choir gave two performances of both the St. Matthew Passion by J.S. Bach and the Requiems of Mozart and Fauré. During Christmas the were five concerts of Advent and Christmas music and in Spring the choir participates in the premiere of Atli Heimir Sveinsson's Symphony No. 2 with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, gave it’s Spring concert, this time with music from the Orthodox Church and did a short tour of England with it and Icelandic music.

The Motet Choir has toured widely, including performances in all the Nordic countries, Notre Dame, Paris, Chartres Cathedral in France and Southwark Cathedral in London. The choir has participated in festivals such as the Bergen Arts Festival and the Wiener Festwochen, and was a prize-winner in the international choral competition in Cork, Ireland, in 1996.

Having released a number of CDs, the choir has earned particular acclaim from international reviewers for its recordings of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem and Hafliði Hallgrímsson’s Passía. On the Swedish BIS label, the choir has recorded works by Jón Leifs, performed with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. The choir has also released very popular Christmas recordings and its Christmas concerts in Hallgrímskirkja have become a perennial fixture on Reykjavík’s music scene.