Páll Pampichler Pálsson

Páll P. Pálsson was born in Graz, Austria. He began his musical studies at the Conservatory in Graz with trumpet, violin, piano, composition and later on conducting. He joined the trumpet section of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Graz at the age of 17. In 1948 he was offered the principal trumpet position with the Icelandic National Symphony Orchestra and at the same time accepted the appointment of conductor of the Reykjavík Marching Band. In 1959 he went to the State Music Conservatory in Hamburg to further his conducting education. In 1971 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

Páll P. Pálsson has made a name for himself as a brilliant composer. Among his larger works are: Svaraðu mér í sumartungl (Answer Me in the Summer Moon) for choir and orchestra, A Few Autumn Leaves for orchestra, Concerto di Giubileo for orchestra, and solo concertos for the clarinet and the bassoon. He has also written many works for chamber ensembles, choral works and solo songs.

In 1998 Páll was asked to compose a large-scale symphonic work for the World Championship in Nordic Skiing in Austria. His symphony Norðurljós (Aurora Borealis) was premiered at the championship festival concert on February 25th in Dachstein-Tauernhalle in Schladming. The work was dedicated to the athletes participating in the competition.

The organizers of the championship approached Páll the previous year and commissioned him to compose an honorary work for the event. Since Páll had lived and worked in Iceland for decades while originally being born in Austria, the organizers considered him an ideal symbolic connection between the Nordic identity of the championship and the host country.

Over the years Páll had conducted the Reykjavík Marching Band, the Reykjavík Male Choir and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, in addition to his compositional work. His music enjoyed considerable popularity in Austria; his works had been widely performed and recorded for CD releases, and he had been extremely active as a composer during this period.

At the festival concert, in addition to Norðurljós, Mozart’s Divertimento in D major KV 136 and Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor were performed. The Graz Symphony Orchestra performed under the direction of Arild Remmereit from Oslo, and the soloist in the Grieg concerto was Markus Schirmer.