Tuesday, September 9 at 12:00, the Midday Concerts at Hafnarborg will return, beginning a new season. At the first concert of the season, Hanna Þóra Guðbrandsdóttir will be the guest of Antonía Hevesi, pianist and artistic director of the concert series.

Hanna Þóra Guðbrandsdóttir began her singing studies at the Music School in Akranes in 1996 and continued at the Reykjavík College of Music, where she completed her diploma in the spring of 2005. She has also studied singing in Copenhagen, Oslo, and Berlin over the years, in addition to attending masterclasses and lessons with various esteemed teachers. In the summer of 2008, Hanna Þóra was selected to participate in the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition, one of the largest competitions in the world for young and emerging opera singers. She has performed as a soloist with various choirs and in church services, and has often appeared with the Icelandic Opera, both with the opera chorus and as a soloist.

Among her roles, Hanna Þóra has sung Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte at the Opera Studio of the Icelandic Opera in 2008. She was also a soloist in the opera Ragnheiður by Gunnar Þórðarson and Friðrik Erlingsson, staged by the Icelandic Opera in 2014. She then performed in the opera Skáldið og biskupsdóttirinn by Alexandra Chernyshova and Guðrún Ásmundsdóttir, which premiered at Hallgrímskirkja in Saurbær in spring 2014. Hanna Þóra has performed the soprano part in Oratorio de Noël by Camille Saint-Saëns and the “Stabat Mater” by Pergolesi with the chamber group Reykjavík Barokk. In July 2015, she sang the role of Gerhilde in Wagner’s Die Walküre in the summer program of the Norwegian Opera. She later sang in a new opera by Alexandra Chernyshova about Mrs. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, and has performed in the Classical Concert Company Reykjavík series from start to finish. She has also been active in organizing various concerts and promoting the cultural life of her hometown, Akranes, and the Westfjords region. For example, she was one of the founders of Söngdætur Akraness, a women’s singing group from Akranes, and she was named Akranes Town Artist in 2011.

Antonía Hevesi, pianist, has been the artistic director of the Hafnarborg Midday Concerts since their inception, bringing many of the country’s leading singers to perform. As usual, the Midday Concerts are scheduled for the first Tuesday of each month throughout the winter season.

The concert begins at 12:00 and lasts about half an hour. The doors open at 11:30, and the concerts are open to all while space allows. Admission is free.