Praised for her "agile and passionate" and "exceedingly lively" playing (Fréttablaðið), Icelandic-American cellist Geirþrúður Anna Guðmundsdóttir has performed internationally at venues like Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and the Southbank Centre and appeared as a soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra (ISO), the Iceland Youth Orchestra, and the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra. Her recent concert tour of Iceland featuring the six Bach Cello Suites was hailed as "an awe-inspiring experience" (Jónas Sen, Fréttablaðið).
She has studied at Northwestern, the Juillard School and London’s Royal Academy of Music and has been a prize winner at numerous competitions, including the Anton Rubinstein International Cello Competition, the Hellam Young Artist Competition, the New York International Artists Association Competition, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra Young Soloist Competition, the Philharmonic Society of Arlington Young Artist Competition, and the Thaviu String Competition. As a chamber musician she won Gold Medal and Grand Prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition with the Terra String Quartet. She has performed solo and chamber music recitals across the United States, Canada, Iceland, Denmark, Holland, France, and the UK.
Pianist Ilan Kurtser is a Britten-Pears Young Artist, Samling Artist and Leeds Lieder Young Artist. He won numerous prizes in competitions in the UK and abroad, including first prrize at the Copenhagen International Lied Duo Competition, Kathleen Ferrier Awards Accompanist Prize and Bampton Classical Opera Competition Accompanist Prize. Ilan was a Bicentenary Scholar at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied Piano Accompaniment with Michael Dussek, James Baillieu and Malcolm Martineau. As part of his Bicentenary Scholarship, he is recording his debut CD of the complete Goethe-Lieder by Hugo Wolf.
Ilan's concert highlights have included recitals with Gweneth Ann Rand and Stephen Whitford at the Aldeburgh Festival, recital violist Paul Silverthorne in London and Museo del Violino in Cremona, Italy, recital with mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston in Leeds Lieder Festival, recital with Elizabeth Watts in Jersey, and performances in Wigmore Hall, International Lied Festival Zeist, Sage Gateshead, Leeds Victoria Hall and Jerusalem Music Centre.
Ilan was a Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music where he curated over 20 concerts for the Academy Song Circle and Academy Voices concert series, teaching and coaching singers and pianists. From September 2024, Ilan is a répétiteur for the Royal Academy Opera.
Performance to include:
Beethoven - 7 Variations on 'Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen'
J.S. Bach - Solo Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major
Sibelius - Select movements from Four Pieces, Op. 78
Brahms - Sonata for cello and piano in E minor, Op. 38
The next lunchtime concert is on Thursday 28 November and will be performed by Ignas Macnickas (piano).
Join the LSE Choir and Orchestra on Tuesday 10 December for the LSE Christmas Concert in the beautiful surroundings of St Clement Danes Church.
More about this event
Just economics and politics? Think again. While LSE does not teach arts or music, there is a vibrant cultural side to the School - from weekly free music concerts in the Shaw Library, and an LSE orchestra and choir with their own professional conductors, various film, art and photographic student societies and regular public exhibitions. For more information please visit LSE Arts and Music.
Hashtag for this event: #LSEMusic