Bryndis Halla Gylfadottir, was in 2004 awarded the Iceland Music Award as the the best classical payer of the year. Principal cellist in the Icelandic Symphony since 1990 she started her cello studies at the age of six in her home country Iceland, and continued her studies in Canada where she lived for 5 years. After moving back to Iceland Bryndis Halla Gylfadottir studied with Gunnar Kvaran and graduated from the Reykjavik College of Music in 1984 She furthered her studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston, whith Colin Carr and Laurence Lesser. During her studies there she participated in several music festivals, such as Tanglewood,Banff, Nova Scotia Music Festival, and Prussia Cove. Bryndis Halla has been very active in Iceland as both soloist and chamber musician, and plays regularly chamber music and recitals in Scandinavia and mainland Europe. She toured Japan several times with the Izumi Tateno trio as well as giving recitals with Mr.Tateno in numerous Japanese cities, and performed with the trio at festivals in Finland and Iceland. The trio released a Cd of Tangos by Piazzolla in 1999. She is a member of Trio Nordica, and Caput Ensemble which specializes in contemporary music, she has toured Europe extensively with these groups. She plays regularly as a soloist with the Icelandic Symphony (Schumann, Dvorak, Shostakovich,Haydn) and will perform the Elgar cello concerto with Vladimir Ashkenazy in june 2006. Bryndis Halla has widely performed Icelandic contemporary music. She received a grant awarded to artists by the Icelandic Ministry of Culture from 1993-96. She was awarded first prize in the performing artists' section of Tonvakinn, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service's music competition in 1992, the first year this event was held. Bryndis Halla has recorded many Cd's both solo and chamber, and with the Caput Ensemble and has recived outstanding reviews for her playing. Bryndis Halla Gylfadottir (cello) brynka@heimsnet.is Born in Reykjavik, Iceland, Edda Erlendsdóttir studied piano at the Music College of Reykjavik and at the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris with Pierre Sancan. Since 1978 Edda Erlendsdóttir has given numerous concerts and participated in important festivals in Iceland, France, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, England, Belgium, Swiss, Italy, Germany, Russia, Latvia,Ukraine and United States. She has played piano solos with orchestras conducted by Leif Segerstam, Larry Newland, Klauspeter Seibel, Jean-Pierre Jacquillat and Miltiades Caridis. Her repertoire spans the first works written for the pianoforte (C.P.E. Bach) through contemporary works (P. Boulez), and is particularly devoted to composers such as Haydn, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel, Schoenberg, Berg. Her passion for chamber music has led her to be the founder and artistic director of the chamber music festival in Kirkjubaejarklaustur, south east Iceland. She is a member of Tempo di Tango, a seven piece tango band together xith arranger and bandoneon player Olivier Manoury Edda Erlendsdóttir has recorded many programs for radio and television, including several recitals broadcast directly on radio France Musique and the Icelandic national radio. She has also published CDs of piano music by C.P.E. Bach. by Edvard Grieg and by Tchaikovsky In 1990 Edda Erlendsdóttir became laureate of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation in Paris. Besides her career as a soloist and as a chamber music performer Edda Erlendsdottir is piano teacher in the National Conservatory of Versailles. Their duo CD has been awarded classical CD of the year in Iceland in 2005