Cantoque sings Hildigunnur Rúnarsdóttir / Dark Music Days at Hallgrímskirkja 2026

Cantoque sings Hildigunnur Rúnarsdóttir
Dark Music Days at Hallgrímskirkja 2026

Cantoque Ensemble’s concert at Dark Music Days 2026, is dedicated to the choral music of Hildigunnur Rúnarsdóttir. Ahead of the performance, Hildigunnur will discuss the works featured in the program and her career in general.

The concert is held in collaboration with Dark Music Days 2026 and lasts about an hour, with no intermission.

Cantoque Ensemble was founded from a Nordic collaboration with the baroque orchestras Höör Barock and Camerata Öresund with their concert being nominated for the Icelandic Music Awards as Musical Event of the Year 2017. The Cantoque Ensemble performed JS Bach's cantatas at the Summer Concert in Skálholt with the Bach Orchestra in Skálholt under the baton of the renowned conductor Andreas Spering. The choir has held numerous concerts with Icelandic folk songs and prides itself in performing new Icelandic music. Cantoque Ensemble collaborates with conductor Steinar Logi Helgason and recently performed JS Bach's Passion with the Baroque band Brák under his direction, as well as performing new Icelandic vocal music at the Summer Concert in Skálholt and at the Song Festival in Hafnarborg.

Cantoque Ensemble's recent projects include the continued collaboration with Camerata Öresund in 2021, but also the baroque ensemble Ensemble Nylandia from Sweden. The project took place in Iceland and Denmark, with the concert being televised to the baroque festival BarokkiKuopio in Finland. That concert was nominated as Musical Event of the Year at the Icelandic Music Awards. Cantoque also held a concert at Dark Music Days 2022, under Helgason's direction, where Icelandic composer Jón Nordal's choral music was at the forefront. The concert was highly praised by critics and concertgoers alike. In 2023, Cantoque began a collaboration with Ensemble Choeur3 and the artistic director Abélia Nordmann, who is based in Switzerland but works across borders to France and Germany. Together, the groups performed Frank Martin's well-known Mass for Double Choir along with Icelandic works. The programme was also performed at the final concert of the Song Festival in Hafnarborg in July 2023. In Switzerland, Cantoque also performed an all-Icelandic repertoire to introduce Icelandic choral works as well as holding a masterclass for conductors and choral singers in the Basel area.

Steinar Logi Helgason was born in 1990 and is educated as an organist, pianist and conductor. After studying piano in the Reykjavík College of music Steinar started studying the organ at the Music school of the National church of Iceland and later in the Iceland University of the Arts where he studied under organist Björn Steinar Sólbergsson and finished a Bachelor’s degree in Church music. Steinar furthered his studies in The Royal Danish Academy of music where he started a master’s degree in Church music under Hans Davidsson and later finishing a master’s degree in ensemble conducting. Steinar has performed widely as an organist, pianist and a conductor. Steinar took over the post of choir director in Hallgrímskirkja in August 2021 and is the founder and conductor of The Choir of Hallgrímskirkja.

Hildigunnur Rúnarsdóttir was born in 1964 in Reykjavík. She studied at the Department of Music Theory at the Reykjavík College of Music, majoring in composition. Her teachers were Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson and Atli Heimir Sveinsson. She then studied composition in Hamburg with Professor Günter Friedrichs and in Copenhagen with Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen. Hildigunnur has worked extensively with various choirs, including the chamber choir Hljómeyki. Her repertoire is extensive, with choral works and chamber music at the forefront. She has written a vast number of choral works and songs, with Vorlauf being one of her best known works. Other works include the children operas Peanut-Jon and the Golden Goose and Gilitrutt, Mixed Dances for Orchestra, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Mass of Guðbrandur, for choir, soloist and orchestra (nominated for the Icelandic Music Awards in 2003) and music for the documentary films of Ásdís Thoroddsen. Hildigunnur's works have been selected for the CDs of the renowned choir festival Europa Cantat. Hildigunnur's works are regularly performed around the world. She has twice been chosen as composer of the month by the respected choral society Choralnet.org and also received the Silver Platter Award from the Composers' Society, also from Choralnet. Hildigunnur works as a composer, teacher and singer in Reykjavík.

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