Sara Rós Hulda Róbertsdóttir

13.04.24
Seltjarna church
The girl who was

Performers
Amateur symphony orchestra
Administrator
Oliver Kentish

Sara Rós Hulda Róbertsdóttir
BA Instrumental Composition

Sara Rós (b. 2002) began her music studies at Stykkishólm's Music School at the age of 6, at first only studying piano, but at the age of 10 she added French horn and later vocal studies on top of double instrument studies. She started composing her own music at a young age, and premiered her own piano piece at Kitón's concert in Stykkishólmi at the age of 15. After matriculation, she completed a songwriting course at Engelsholm Community College in Denmark and then began studying instrumental composition at the Iceland Academy of the Arts in the fall of 2021, with Hildigun Rúnarsdóttir as the main teacher. In addition to studying composition, she has also been studying horn at LHÍ for the past two years. During her studies, she has composed a wide variety of works, including works for chamber groups, solo instruments, choirs and music for short films. Two pieces by her have also been premiered in Skálholt Church's summer concert series. The girl who was, which is premiered here by the Amateur Symphony Orchestra, is her final project for her BA degree in instrumental composition at LHÍ.

The girl who was

The piece is composed for a symphony orchestra and is inspired by the tender and sad experiences of the composer's mother. It describes in five chapters the unique friendship of two young girls, which came to an abrupt and premature end when one of them was brutally murdered in Copenhagen in the summer of 1990, when they were both 18 years old. The first chapter of the work tries to capture the youthful glow and joy that characterized the girls' friendship when they were children. In the second chapter, a slightly more adult tone can be discerned, when the girls grow up and experience the love and disappointment of their teenage years. The third chapter describes the brutal murder and the crippling grief that followed for the victim's loved ones. The fourth chapter considers the long-term consequences of the murder, and finally the work ends with the fifth chapter, which is a kind of ode to life and to rejoicing over precious memories. The work is accompanied by a pamphlet in which the composer's mother describes this life experience in her own words in a personal and sincere way.