15:15 Concert series “Jónas Tómasson – portrait with Ton de Leeuw”

Jónas Tómasson – portrait with Ton de Leeuw. Sunday 30. October at 15:15

Caput ensemble, Iceland‘s leading new music ensemble, presents Icelandic composer Jónas Tómasson in their portrait series, celebrating this 70th anniversary.

The program:

Jónas: Í Tóneyjahafi for bass-flute, clarinet, bass-clarinet and horn

Jónas: Ballett VI – Eight Slow Dances for Lára for four winds, viola and double bass

Ton de Leeuw: Reversed Night for solo-flute

Jónas: 6 Images – invisible for wind quintet

Jónas Tómasson studied music at the Reykjavík Conservatory of Music, where his teachers in composition were Jón Þórarinsson and Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson.  He continued his studies at the Sweelinck Music Conservatory in Amsterdam where he took lessons with Ton de Leeuw, Léon Orthel og Jos Kunst and others during the years 1969-1972. At that time Amsterdam was especially attractive to young artists from all over the world, among them a group of very progressive visual artists who founded the conceptual art group SÚM. Jónas quickly became very active with the SÚM group and his music was deeply influenced by their ideology.

Jónas moved to Iceland in 1973 and settled in Ísafjörður where he has lived since.  He has been very active in many areas of the musical life there, as a teacher of flute and theoretical subjects at the Ísafjörður Music School, as a flute player and choir conductor, and for years he has supervised the concert activities for the Ísafjörður Music Society. Still, composing music has always been his main calling and during the last years his sole occupation.

Jónas is a prolific composer and his works are very varied and diverse. He has written a number of symphonic works and in recent years he has written eight Sinfoniettas exploring the sound world of the symphonic orchestra with different instrumentations.  He has also written several concertos, e.g. for organ, viola, piano, two pianos and orchestra. Choral works, sacred and secular, are a large part of his compositional work such as Missa Tibi Laus, A Lucas Oratorio, Missa brevis og Songs to the Earth. Jónas has composed a great number of chamber works for diverse and often original combinations of instruments and many solo works for instruments or voice, often at the special requests of the artists.

Many of Iceland´s best musicians have performed Jónas´works during the years, e.g. has The Icelandic Symphony Orchestra performed many of his symphonic works and concertos. The Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra, Caput, the chamber group Ýmir, The Motet Choir of Hallgrímskirkja and many smaller musical groups and soloists have had his works in their repertoire and performed them all over the world.

Many of his works have been recorded and played in the radio or appeared on various CDs. The Icelandic Music Centre released a Portrait CD solely with his music and the CD Dýrð Krists (The Glory of Christ) consists of his work of the same name for solo organ.

The concert is about one hours long.

Ticket price is 2000, but 1000 for elderly, disable and students.

Tickets ar sold on www.tix.is and by the entrance