Early Incidental Studies Abroad;
Study-trips, Summer Courses, Music Festivals & Informative visits

1969-1980

London Prominade Concerts with Boulez and the Barenboim's and others in 1968, Edinburgh Festival 1969, Oslo Young Nordic Music Festival 1971 -- London 1972, Copenhagen 1973, Princeton (New Jersey) 1974, Aspen (Colorado) 1975, Interlochen (Michigan) 1976, Tanglewood (Massachusetts) 1977, Montréal 1977, Stockholm 1978, Arvika, Sweden 1979, Tampere & Helsinki 1980, etc.

Early Professional & Private Musical Activities
paralell to grade school and studies at the Reykjavík College of Music, Reykjavík

1967-1973

From 1967-1973 extreme extra-curricular energy went into planing, designing, building and paying for a private electronic music studio of considerable dimensions that was used for experimental purposes. The state-of-the-arts equipment included Sennheiser microphones from Germany, a stereo-mixer and reverberation unit from Alice Electronics of England, two high speed tape decks from Revox/Studer Electronics of Switzerland, a fully sound-proof studio (15 square meters), a Yamaha grand piano and an electronic organ/synthesizer - plus other equipment. The financing of the above was secured through 4-6 years of work on weekends and holidays in various dance bands at restaurants and hotels in and around Reykjavík.

Actually, this trend in the present writer's CV can be traced back to the year 1963, when he, as a 12 years old, established 5 piece band that frequently played dance music at school gatherings.

Going still further back in time, mention may be made of the fact that the present author, at the time nine years old, accompanied his family to London (1960-61), were his father was in residence at the BBC training for his job as Program Director of the Icelandic National Televisions Service; a job which he held from 1965 to 1990. While in London, his mother, on the other hand, was a voice student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. The 9 year old boy regularly attended his mother's singing lessons and was thus introduced to the wonders of the music of Puccini, Verdi, Gluck and other composers -- including Mr. Bach-Gounod . . . Frequent visit to the Royal Covent Garden Opera House added further dimensions to this extraordinary year abroad.