Sigurður Pétur Bragason

Sigurður Bragason, Baritone – Curriculum Vitae

Sigurður Bragason has worked for decades as a soloist, voice teacher, composer, and choir conductor. He has directed, among others, the Chamber Choir of the New Music School, the Árnesingar Choir in Reykjavík, and the Choir of the Reykjavík Women's College. He is currently the conductor of the Reykjavík Chamber Choir.
He has composed numerous songs and larger works for choirs and soloists. Three books of his songs have been published.
His work “The Passion of Christ” (On Easter), set to poems by Valdimar Lárusson, was performed at benefit concerts in Langholtskirkja in 1997, in Hallgrímskirkja in 2002, and again in Langholtskirkja in 2017.
The piece “Almighty Father, Touch the Heart of This World”, set to a poem by Matthías Jochumsson, was performed at a benefit concert in Langholtskirkja in 2014.
“A Melodic Lament of the Passion”, based on a poem by Bishop Jón Arason of Hólar, was composed for the 30th anniversary of Árbæjarkirkja in 2017.

Sigurður Bragason is also one of the best-known baritone singers in Iceland. He has given recitals in many of the most renowned concert halls in Europe and the United States. His repertoire includes major works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner, Mussorgsky, Verdi, Bellini, Donizetti, Tosti, Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff.
He has performed in Wigmore Hall and in St. John’s Smith Square in London, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and The Corcoran Museum of Art in Washington DC, the Chamber Music Hall of Carnegie Hall and the Scandinavia House in New York, the Edvard Munch Museum in Oslo, the H. C. Andersen Music Hall in Odense, the Temppeliaukio Church in Helsinki, the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Richard Wagner Hall in Riga with the Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra, the Palazzo Trabia in Sicily, Borromini in Rome, the Beethoven House in Bonn and in Villa Wahnfried in conjunction with the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth.
Bragason has also performed in music festivals and concert series such as the Encontros Festival for Modern Music in Buenos Aires, the Copenhagen European City of Culture Festival, Bonner Sommer, The Beethoven Society of America, Compagnia per la Musica in Rome, I Concerti di Sacristia di Borromini in Rome, the Bevagna Music Festival in Umbria, the Ibla Music Festival in Ragusa, the Music Festival of Catania, I Concerti d'Altamarca in the Veneto, Festival di Musica Classica Castiglione del Lago and the Grieg Festival in Bergen. He was a soloist with the Sarband Orchestra of Vladimir Ivanoff in Bayreuth and the Deutsche Welle Music Room in Bonn.
His operatic roles include Prince Kalman in Mondschein Insel by the Nordic Music Prize laureate Atli Heimir Sveinsson at the Nordrhein-Westfalen Cultural Festival in Cologne, Bonn, and Bielefeld. He also performed as Sacristan in Tosca at the Icelandic National Theatre, Marcello in La Boheme at the Reykjavík City Theater, Black Bob in Let's Make an Opera by Benjamin Britten at the Icelandic Opera, and Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas by Purcell. He has performed with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra and been a soloist in Messiah, Bach cantatas, Vespro della Beata Vergine by Monteverdi, and Carmina Burana by Carl Orff under the conductor Willy Gohl.

Sigurður Bragason has appeared in several radio and TV programs such as the Comparing Notes program on the BBC, on Icelandic State Radio with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Alvaro Manzano, and in Mondschein Insel on West Deutsche Rundfunk in Germany under the conductor Guðmundur Emilsson.

CD “Blómljóð” – Songs composed by Sigurður Bragason, featuring Jóna G. Kolbrúnardóttir (soprano), Egill Árni Pálsson (tenor), members of the Barbörukórinn (Barböru Choir), the Reykjavík Chamber Choir, and pianist Jón Sigurðsson.

CD “Colourful Art Songs from Six Countries” with pianist Hjálmur Sighvatsson. Works by Leifs, Verdi, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Schubert, Beethoven, and Strauss.

CD “Life and Lyrics”: an anthology of Icelandic songs with pianist Hjálmur Sighvatsson.

CD “Overtures and Arias” by Mozart with the Baltic Philharmonic in Riga, conducted by Guðmundur Emilsson. Nominated for the Icelandic Music Awards in 2000.

CD “Songs of the Master Pianists” with pianist Vovka Ashkenazy. Works by Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Rubinstein. Published by Arsis Classics in the Netherlands.

CD “Songs of Light and Darkness” with pianist Hjálmur Sighvatsson. Works by Kaldalóns, Ísólfsson, Donizetti, Verdi, Leifs, and Mussorgsky.

Vinyl record “Sigurður Bragason Sings”  – A collection of Italian, German, and Icelandic art songs, accompanied by Þóra Fríða Sæmundsdóttir.