ICELANDIC VIOLINIST AND COMPOSER UNA SVEINBJARNARDÓTTIR AND PIANIST TINNA ÞORSTEINSDÓTTIR

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

SONO LUMINUS RELEASES LAST SONG, WORKS FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO
PERFORMED BY ICELANDIC VIOLINIST AND COMPOSER
UNA SVEINBJARNARDÓTTIR AND PIANIST TINNA ÞORSTEINSDÓTTIR

On one of Iceland’s radio stations there is a tradition: at noon an Icelandic song, usually a wordless lullaby or love ballad is played just before the news hour.

Icelandic violinist Una Sveinbjarnardóttir together with Tinna Þorsteinsdóttir on piano, toy piano and prepared piano has put together Last Song, a soothingly musical antidote to whatever the day’s bad news might be.

Works by contemporary Icelandic composes, including Jórunn Viðar’s Icelandic Suite, Winter by Karólína Eiríksdóttir, In a Dream and Lullaby both by Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson, Atli Heimir Sveinsson’s Three Marian Prayers, along with Couperin’s Aubade Provençale,, Hildegard’s Anima Processional, Ole Bull’s I Ensomme Stunde, and various melodies by Monteverdi, Gluck, and Massenet provide moments of calm throughout the nineteen track of this Sono Luminus (DSL-92248) recording.

Rafael de Acha ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”