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Press release
Schulhoff festival in Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum Reykjavík July 23rd and 24th 2022 at 8:30 pm
The aim of this festival is to honor the memory and music of the Czech composer Erwin
Schulhoff, who was born in Prague in 1894 and died in a concentration camp near Munich in
1942. As a result of his untimely death, Schulhoff and his music were largely
forgotten after the Second World War. In recent years, many musicologists, musicians,
and musical societies have worked hard to bring Schulhoff’s music back into the consciousness of
musicians and into concert halls. Although much progress has been made in recent decades,
today − in the year that marks the eightieth anniversary of his death − the name Erwin
Schulhoff remains a mystery to many musicians and classical music aficionados. The Schulhoff Festival in Reykjavík, includes two concerts with some of Schulhoff’s most notable chamber music works such as the two sonatas for violin and piano and the Hot Sonata. Dr. Alexander Liebermann will talk about Erwin Schulhoff’s life and music, and the importance of Schulhoff’s music in the twentieth century and ultimately also in Western classical music. He will also share the inpact that Schulhoff's music has had on him as a composer. Most of the pieces played during these concerts will be Icelandic premieres. | ||||||
Erwin Schulhoff 1894 − 1942 |
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Erwin Schulhoff was born in 1894 in Prague into a German-Jewish family. Encouraged by Antonín Dvořák
Schulhoff began musical studies at the Prague Conservatory at the age of ten. Later he studied composition and piano in
Vienna, Leipzig, and Cologne, where his teachers included Claude Debussy, Max Reger, Fritz Steinbach, and Willi Thern.
During the World War I he was wounded and emprisoned in Italy. After the war he lived in Germany until he returning to
Prague in 1923.
Schulhoff occasionally performed as a pianist in the Prague Free Theatre. He also toured Germany, France and England performing his own works, contemporary classical compositions, and jazz. After 1930 Schulhoff faced increased difficulties because of his Jewish descent and his radical politics. He and his works were blacklisted by the Nazi regime and he could no longer give recitals in Germany, nor could his works be performed publicly. His communist sympathies, which became increasingly evident, also brought him trouble in Prague. When the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939, he had to perform under a pseudonym. In 1941, the Soviet Union approved his petition for citizenship, but he was arrested and imprisoned before he could leave Czechoslovakia. In June 1941, Schulhoff was deported to the Wülzburg prison near Weißenburg, Bavaria and he died there 18 of August 1942 from tuberculosis. Erwin Schulhoff was one of the first generation of classical composers to find inspiration in the rhythms of jazz music. He also embraced the avant-garde influence of Dadaism in his performances and compositions. |
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From birdsong-inspired compositions to political monodramas, the wide-ranging music of composer
Alexander Liebermann is sought after across the United States and Europe. His most recent compositions include
a climate-change reflecting monodrama commissioned by the Deutsche Oper Berlin, a birdsong-inspired string trio
commissioned by members of the Staatskapelle Dresden, and a soundtrack for the documentary film Frozen
Corpses Golden Treasures.
As a nature enthusiast, Dr. Liebermann devotes much of his time to the sounds of wildlife; his original and accurate transcriptions of animal vocalizations are viral on social media and featured in the world-renowned magazine National Geographic. His first book Birdsong: A Musical Field Guide, was recently published by Just A Theory Press. Liebermann graduated from Hanns Eisler Conservatory, Juilliard, and Manhattan School of Music. For his doctoral thesis on Erwin Schulhoff, Liebermann was awarded the Saul Braverman Award in Music Theory. He resides in New York, where he is music theory and ear training faculty at Juilliard’s preparatory division Music Advancement Program. | |||||
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Hlíf Sigurjónsdóttir
studied the violin with concertmaster Björn
Ólafsson at the Reykjavík College of Music. She furthered her studies at the
Universities of Indiana and Toronto where her teachers were Franco Gulli and Lorand Fenyves,
followed by two winters as a stipendiary at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada. Later she took
private lessons in New York from the renowned violinist and teacher Gerald Beal.
Hlíf has worked with many of the leading musicians of the twentieth century, including William Primrose, Janos Starker, Ruggiero Ricci, Igor Oistrach, György Sebok and the members of the Hungarian quartet. Hlíf has given numerous concerts both as a soloist and with various ensembles and orchestras. In 2014, MRS Classics released her disc DIALOGUS with works for solo violin, all of which were written for her. That disc has been highly acclaimed, e.g. by Voix des Arts, and one of Fanfare Magazine's critics, Maria Nockin, has named it as one of the best CDs of the year 2015. In 2015 MSR Classics re-released the critically acclaimed 2-CD set of her playing the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by J.S. Bach, first released in 2008. Hlíf is very interested in historical recordings made by the Iceland State Radio which led to radio programs, releasing a CD and events featuring the first generation of classically trained musicians in Iceland. Hlíf is the artistic director of Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum Summer Concert Series. | |||||
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Slava Poprugin
graduated from Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow in 2000 and the
next 15 years he served as docent at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory leading the piano solo and chamber
music classes. Upon the graduation from the Gnessin Academy he started a fruitful collaboration
with Natalia Gutman, one of the world's most esteemed cello performers. Their joint
performances for more than 15 years literally covered the world with concerts on such stages as
the Tchaikovsky and Moscow Conservatory Halls, National Concert Hall in Taipei, Hoam
Art Hall in Seoul and Sala Cecília Meireles in Rio de Janeiro. In 2018 he was appointed as a
professor at the Royal Conservatoire in Den Haag and has since lived in the Netherlands.
Slava’s other remarkable collaborations include performances with Yury Bashmet, Alexander Buzlov, Martin Fröst, Alexander Kagan and others at the renowned chamber music festivals in Kuhmo, Rheingau and Kreuth. Slava is also much sought after as a soloist with orchestra, playing a wide variety of programs with music of Mozart, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Schumann, Ravel and with such conductors as Susanna Mälkki, Vladimir Jurowski, Dmitry Liss, Vladimir Verbitsky. Slava’s performances are available on CDs, both recitals and in ensembles with Natalia Gutman (Live Classics), Alexander Buzlov (Delos), Alexei Lubimov (Alpha). Besides his teaching and performances Slava runs the Steppenwolf Recording Studio in the Netherlands. | |||||
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Adrien Liebermann is a Berlin based saxophonist. He obtained his Bachelor of Music
degree in 2019 from the Hochschule für Musik-Hanns Eisler in Berlin in the class of Johannes
Ernst and two years later he graduated with a Master’s degree in the class of Philippe Geiss at the
Haute École des Arts du Rhin in Strasbourg, France. He won the first prize of both the classical
Saxophone competition 2013 in Lübeck and the German competition Jugend
Musiziert in Hamburg 2015. He has obtained a scholarship from Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Berlin
e.V. and the DAAD organisation.
Adrien has played with Orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Karajan-Akademie, the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg and the Hohenfels Orchestra. Working with renowned conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Suzanna Mälkki, Enno Poppe, Marie Jacquot and Matthias Pintscher has truly inspired him. As a soloist he has played with the Orquestra Jovem do Estado da São Paulo and with the Sibelius Orchestra. Adrien developed his Jazz and improvisation skills with Prof. Peter Weniger and Volker Schlott of the Jazz Institute Berlin, Prof. Maria Baptist, Richard de Rosa, Michael Alizon and Philippe Geiss. He has recorded for several CDs, e.g. the Sonata which his brother, Alexander dedicated to him. Adrien teaches the saxophone and the clarinet in music schools. | |||||
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Martin Frewer was born in Dartford, Kent in 1960 and started taking piano lessons at the age of six and later violin
lessons as well. He spent his undergraduate years studying mathematics at Christ Church in Oxford, during which time he also
commuted to London for violin lessons with Yfrah Neaman. After receiving his degree in mathematic at the Oxford University
he continued his studies with Neaman at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, also studying the viola with Nannie Jaimeson.
He has participated in master-classes with Igor Ozim, Martin Loveday, Eric Gruenberg, Almita & Roland Vamos, Peter Guth,
Ake Lundeberg & Lin Yaoti.
In 1983 he got a position at the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and settled down here, pursuing his mathematic skills as a software engineer at the Marel food processing company as well as taking part in the music life in Iceland. He is a very good music arranger and is the founding member and manager of the Spiccato chamber orchestra. | |||||
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Cellist Þórdís Gerður Jónsdóttir plays both classical music and jazz,
improvises as well as composes. She studied classical cello performance at the
Iceland Academy of the Arts (B.Mus) and received her Master of Music degree after studies at the Royal Academy
of Music Aarhus, Denmark. She also holds a diploma from the FÍH College of Music in jazz
performance and improvisation. Þórdís is a founding member of
Cauda Collective chamber ensemble. In 2021 she released her debut record Vistir
with her own jazz compositions.
In 2014 Þórdís finished a B.Sc. degree in nursing (RN) and in 2019 she completed a post-graduate diploma in public health sciences, both degrees from the University of Iceland. Inbetween concerts she works as a nurse in the paediatric emergency room in the Iceland University Hospital. | |||||