Rising Stars: Álfheiður Erla Guðmundsdóttir & Kunal Lahiry

Born in Reykjavík and trained at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin, Álfheiður Erla Guðmundsdóttir was named »Singer of the Year« at the 2021 Icelandic Music Awards. Her concert programme revolves around the theme of migration, with songs full of longing and horror.

»Sá ég svani«, composed by Nico Muhly for soprano Álfheiður Erla Guðmundsdóttir, tells of wanderlust for Iceland at the sight of a flying white swan. In »hite Eggs in the Bush,« ased on a hunter's poem in Yoruba, a Nigerian-Congolese language, two cuckoos warn of the outbreak of war, but are not heard by the people. Accompanied by Kunal Lahiry on the piano, Guðmundsdóttir also sings songs by African-American composer, pianist and activist Margaret Bonds and by Errollyn Wallen, who was born in Belize and emigrated to Great Britain with her family as a child.

Rising Stars is a project of the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO). Álfheiður Erla Guðmundsdóttir was nominated by Harpa Reykjavík and Philharmonie Luxembourg.