Work
To date, my compositions consist of mainly choral music both sacred and secular, songs and chamber works. More recently, I have added a few concertos to my output.The piece which first brought me to the public's attention was "Myrkraverk" (1982) scored for woodwinds, brass and percussion. Following its première in Akureyri, North Iceland, it has been widely played, by, amongst others, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and various groups in Scandinavia and the UK.
Of my commissions, the most important must be that by the British Government, which commissioned a large-scale orchestral work from me to be a gift from the British people to the Icelandic nation on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Icelandic independence in 1994. The resulting work, a setting of an Icelandic text for baritone and orchestra was dedicated to the then President of Iceland, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, and premièred in Reykjavik on September 1994 by the baritone Michael Clarke, conducted by Osmo Vänskä. Another important commission, from John Culver, the then Brish Ambassador to Iceland, was for a short work for performance on the occasion of a visit to Iceland by the Princess Royal, HRH Princess Anne.The resulting work, called rather tongue-in-cheek, "Not Another Fanfare" is a quodlibet using Icelandic and British melodies.
A work to celebrate one thousand years of Christianity in Iceland was awarded a prize in a competition in 2000, for a setting of a text by the former Bishop of Iceland, Dr. Sigurbjörn Einarsson.
The motet "Turn Thee Unto Me" a setting of part of the 25th Psalm, was commissioned by the choir Schola Cantorum Reykjavicensis and has been recorded on their CD, devoted to Icelandic Church music by living composers, "Audi Creator Coeli", released in December 2001. This CD was nominated as one of the best CDs released in Iceland for the year 2003. Two further CDs featuring my music have been issued in 2005. They are "From my Home Shore to Distant Shores", music for harpsichord played by Helga Ingólfsdóttir and "Monologues-Dialogues" Icelandic music for bass claritnet performed by Rúnar Óskarsson. Both these CDs have also been nominated for the Icelandic Music Prize in the category 'new music'.