The contemporary music festival Dark Music Days opens in Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavík today. Established by the Society of Icelandic Composers in 1980, the festival has been described by the Times as “ever-diversifying… a hot ticket in a cultural hotspot.”
The festival showcases the “great composers that live amongst us here in Iceland” but also “concerts that showcase the most exciting works that have been written throughout the world performed by world-class musicians,” a description on the festival’s website reads.
In 2015 Dark Music Days is collaborating with the Reykjavík Center for Visual Music (RCVM) and Spanish abstract film festival Punto y Raya to offer a program combining contemporary music with audiovisual art.
The opening ceremony features two live cinematic pieces commissioned especially for the festival, where composers Anna Þorvaldsdóttir and Hugi Guðmundsson join forces with visual artists Sigurður Guðjónsson and Bret Battey.
Dark Music Days also claims to premiere more new works every year than any other Icelandic event.
The festival runs through Sunday, February 2.
For program details visit darkmusicdays.is and for tickets harpa.is.
