When Páll came home from his studies in Spain in 1984 he had found out
that being a classical guitarist, a soloist, can be a very lonely
lifestyle. No collegues at all. Therefore it was not far from his
mind to let the guitar join other instruments. That is why he
happily accepted when shortly after the arrival to Iceland Páll was asked
to perform with the flutist Kolbeinn Bjarnason at a concert helt at The
Univercity of Iceland, organized by a Nordic Ocean Peace organisation
where they performed pieces by
Atli Heimir
Sveinsson, Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson and others. This was the start of
a very successful cooperation of these two "soloists" and awokened
Páls interests for "Contemporary Music". This
Icelandic and "Modern Music" was a complete opposite to the Romantic
Spanish Music he had mostly been practicing with his teacher in Alcoy. These first semesters Páll
was aswell introduced to Ung Nordisk Musik (UNM) but in 1985 was
to be held an UNM festival in Helsinki. A young composer Mist
Thorkelsdóttir wrote for that purpose a piece for Páll Eyjólfsson, a duo named Danslag
to a lyric by Steinn
Steinarr. This piece was dedicated to Páll, for guitar and vox but
it could be performed aswell for solo guitar, then named Dans. Páll
premiered this piece at the Nordic House in Reykjavík with Swedish Anders Josepsson,
bariton but the UNM festival in Finland was never helt. In 1985 UNM
was helt in Ĺrhus in Denmark and there Páll performed the Danslag
with an altvoice Jóhanna Linnett. That same year Páll performed at
his debut concert in Reykjavík and on a Musica Nova concert in Áskirkja
in Reykjavík the Dans. He had been performing in various towns in
Iceland, as a soloist and as a duo with the flutist Kolbeinn. Páll and
Kolbeinn gave an interesting concert 1986 in Gerduberg in
Reykjavík, but at that time Gerduberg was a newly built cultural center
in Reykjavík. In January 1989 Páll and Kolbeinn gave aswell an
interesting performance at the Pulitzer hotel in Amsterdam in Holland,
but a part of that performance was broadcasted overseas by the
Television station Stöđ 2 aswell theire premiere of Suite
by Hjálmar H. Ragnarsson. Páll and Kolbeinn travelled all
around Iceland, introducing theire music to scolars all over the island. One of the pieces they introduced was "Tierkreiz"
by Karlheinz Stockhausen.
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| Páll and Kolbeinn rehersing at
Fálkagata in 1985 |
Páll and Kolbeinn practising in
Álfheimar, 1990 |
Páll and Laufey performing in
Akureyri, 1997 |
Páll and Magnea
preparing for the Nordic house 2006 |
In 1997 CAPUT
published a CD with Sveinn Lúđvík Björnssons' compositions, CD
where Páll
and Kolbeinn interprete the pieced "Silence in the Thunder" and
"Leaving a Shadow" by
Sveinn. When Kolbeinn dedicated most of his time to the directing
of CAPUT theire cooperation came to a stop. By that time Páll had
been working quite a lot with the violinist Laufey Sigurđardóttir.
Theire first performance was at an opening of an exhibition at The Modern
Art Museum in 1986 nylo and again
in 1988 in Akureyri.
Since then they have been cooperationg constantly and theire repertoire is
still increasing. In the late 80's Páll aswell gave a concert with the sopran singer Ingibjörg
Sveinsdóttir, which had been elected by RUV to some revords. This concert
was helt at an Art Museum Listasafn Sigurjóns Ólafssonar museum
in
Laugarnes in Reykjavík by the seaside, where Páll used to play as a
child.
John Speight, a bariton singer and a composer, coteacher with Páll at Tónskóli Sigursveins D. Kristinssonar and later a
director of the Icelandic Composers Society, composed a few pieces
for Páll and asked him to perform others he had written earlier.
This cooperation lead among other things to the recording of a Guitarconcert in 1990, where Páll plaied with The Icelandic
Symphonic
Orchestra, symphony
conducted by Gudmundur Óli Gunnarsson, as a soloist.
This concert has been broadcasted several times by RUV. And a remarkable
recording was made by the National Television in Iceland where Páll
plaied "Echoes of Orpheus" by John Speight, where Páll hums
and whistles in one of the acts.
An other composer, Hródmar Ingi Sigurbjörnsson wrote a Trio in 1989
to a lyric by Gyrdir Elíasson. This he composed for Páll and a
fagott and an Alt voice. This Trio was performed at a concert organised by
The Icelandic Orchestra at Langholtskirkja on February 11, 1990
with Páll Eyjólfsson on the guitar, Rúnar Vilbergsson playing the
fagott and the Altvoice Jóhanna V. Thórhallsdóttir singing. At this
concert Páll plaied aswell in a Quartet by Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson and a
Quintet by Atli Heimir Sveinsson. One of these years Páll aswell
performed with Kammersveit Reykjavíkur at a concert by The Nordic
Music Days in Iceland at Langholtskirkja in a quintet by the
Swedish composer Arne
Mëlnes named Pieces fugitives.
In 1996 the firm SKREF published a CD with Páll Eyjólfsson and the
violinist Laufey Sigurdardóttir with works written by Italian composers,
such as Corelli, Paganini and Tartini. And the very prospectus year 1996 Páll and Laufey aswell performed at the Art
Festival in Thorshavn "Sumartónar í Fćreyjum" where
they performed among other pieces the "Vapp" composed for them by
Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson. In 1998 Páll and Laufey
gave a few concerts at a Baroque Festival in the rigion of Valencia,
near Castellon in Spain that is in Villafames church
and VilaReal. In the year 2000 the cooperation of Páll and
Laufey led to a concert in Helsinki, Finland where they among other
pieces premiered a piece named "Gefjun" composed for them by
Hilmar Thordarson. This they performed at Salurinn in Kópavogur at a
"portrait concert of Hilmar Thordarson" the 27th of March 2001.
And in June 7, 2002 Páll and Laufey gave a Concert at Kobenhagen
Round Tower as
a few in Iceland.
Páll has aswell performed with the flautists Magnea Árnadóttir and
Martial Nardeau the recent years. The sound of these two unlike
instruments seems to make a great harmony. Páll and Magnea
performed at Reykjavík Art Festival this spring 2002 and The
Nordic house in Reykjavík 2006.
In June 2000 Páll participated with Óperustúdío
Austurlands at the Opera The barber in Seville, at Eidar directed by Keith Reed.
In that same tour Páll performed with the flautist Stefán Höskuldsson
and pianist Elzaveta Kopelman.
Páll has urged to ensembles with 2-20 or more guitarists, with his
students and with his fellow guitarplayers. Lately 4 guitarplayers
plaied at The Icelandic Art Museum, at "Myrkir músíkdagar" a
consert organized by "The Icelandic Composers Society" the
guitarpart of a piece by Atli Heimir Sveinsson "Tíminn og
vatniđ" composed to a text from a sonamed poem by Steinn
Steinarr. Páll participated aswell when this piece was premiered in 1994
at The Art Festival of Reykjavík with "Kammersveit
Reykjavíkur" conducted by Paul Zukofsky Neue
MusikZeitung.
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