Lecture in IUA Music Department
Friday October 8th
Fræðastofa I - Skipholt 31

George Fisher On Learning Úlfar Ingi´s Dreamscape, for solo piano

Úlfar Ingi composed Dreamscape between October 2019 and March 2020. As each of the five parts was completed he sent them to George, who started learning them and asking about various issues of execution and interpretation. George performed the work at a „House Concert“ in Long Island, New York, in September 2020 (with the composer and other colleagues and friends joining on zoom) and also included it among the works studied in a course on ‚The Music and Culture of Iceland‘ that he taught at Mannes in Spring 2021.

In this presentation, and in a conversational format, George and Úlfar Ingi will talk about the genesis of the work and aspects of their collaboration to date. They will also discuss performance perspectives on distinctive features within individual parts as well as some of the threads tying them all together. The presentation will conclude with a performance of the work (c. 20 minutes), with time for audience response as well.

George Fisher

George Fisher, a resident of the New York City area, received his academic training at Brandeis, Stony Brook, and Columbia Universities, and studied piano privately with Victor Rosenbaum and Robert Helps. He has held faculty positions at Bates College, Stony Brook University, Adelphi University, New York University, and Mannes College of Music (a division of The New School). He remained active as a performer throughout his academic career, with special attention to the music of living composers, and has also recorded for CRI and Opus One Recordings. His interest in Icelandic music began in 2014, on his first trip to Iceland, when he reconnected with Hjálmar Helgi Ragnarsson, who had been an undergraduate classmate of his at Brandeis. Since then he has performed and/or recorded works of Hjálmar as well as Hróðmar I. Sigurbjörnsson and Úlfar Ingi Haraldsson, and looks forward to continuing his active association with these and other Icelandic composers in the future.