World perimere on October 19, 2024, within the vast Eldborg Hall of Harpa, Reykjavik, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and marvaða presented RITUAL to close this year’s Arctic Circle Assembly, in partnership with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. RITUAL is not a concert in the conventional sense. It is an invocation, a shared gesture of purpose, where music becomes a vessel for something larger. Rituals have long served as a bridge between humans and the sacred forces of nature, honouring glaciers, rivers, and forests as living entities. As time and water reshape our sacred landscapes, we unite in music and song to transform grief into collective strength. We offer not merely a reflection, but an act of transformation.
Conceived by director Arnbjörg María Danielsen, with composer Viktor Orri Árnason and Yo-Yo Ma, and with text by Andri Snær Magnason and ancient Icelandic poets, this ritual offers a spiritual response to the overwhelming reality of a changing planet. A multitude of artists lend their voices and instruments to this living composition rooted in the environmental wisdom of Iceland, each contributing to the dense weave of sound and silence (full artist roster can be found here).
RITUAL is part of Yo-Yo Ma’s Our Common Nature initiative, which explores how culture can reconnect us to the natural world, including creative work from Mammoth Cave in Kentucky to the plains of Montana and the Birch forests of Alaska. Yo-Yo Ma’s visit to Iceland will culminate with two concerts in Harpa, presented by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra on 24 and 26 October.
The connection between music, ritual, and glaciers takes on a particularly poignant meaning in the age of global warming. The melting of glaciers, once thought immutable, now cascading away under the weight of human activity, is not merely an ecological catastrophe. It is a severance, a dislocation of culture, spirituality, and place. Communities that once wove these glaciers into their mythologies and ceremonies now face the dissolution of those sacred symbols. Ritual social bonds are essential for collective problem-solving, especially when facing an issue as complex and overwhelming as climate change. Here, music summons a reconnection to the sacredness of the earth itself. It offers the possibility that, through such rituals, environmental activism may evolve into something more profound.
Yo-Yo Ma’s multi-faceted career is a testament to his belief in the power of culture to generate trust and understanding. Ma is an advocate for a future guided by humanity, trust, and understanding. Among his many roles, Ma is a United Nations Messenger of Peace, the first artist ever appointed to the World Economic Forum’s board of trustees, a member of the board of Nia Tero, the US-based nonprofit working in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and movements worldwide, and the founder of the global music collective Silkroad. His discography of more than 120 albums (including 19 Grammy Award winners) ranges from iconic renditions of the Western classical canon to recordings that defy categorization, such as “Hush” with Bobby McFerrin and the “Goat Rodeo Sessions” with Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. Ma’s recent releases include “Six Evolutions,” his third recording of Bach’s cello suites, and “Songs of Comfort and Hope,” created and recorded with pianist Kathryn Stott in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. His latest album, “Beethoven for is the third in a new series of Beethoven recordings with pianist Emanuel Ax and violinist Leonidas Kavakos.
About Arnbjörg María Danielsen
Arnbjörg María Danielsen is an Icelandic multidisciplinary artist, director, and curator. Her transdisciplinary music theatre productions are at the intersection of contemporary and classical music, visual arts, performance, literature, and historical research, working with international symphonic orchestras, theatres, and festivals. Central to Danielsen’s artistic practice is her commitment to creating immersive ritualistic environments. Her work frequently explores the relationship between art and space, transforming theatres and performance venues into experiential landscapes. Born in Reykjavik and raised in both Norway and Iceland, Danielsen has spent much of her professional life in Central Europe, living in places such as Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and Berlin. In addition to her work in Iceland, Danielsen has developed artistic networks, festivals, and projects in Iceland and Greenland focusing on experimental and contemporary art practices in the Arctic in flux with the world at large. Arnbjörg is the founder of Reykjavík-based marvaða creation nucleus and music label, which emphasizes female energy, ecological empathy, and coexistence.
Viktor Orri Árnason is an Icelandic composer, conductor, and producer. His particular focus on colliding the worlds of classical composition and studio artistry – along with his unique approach to the viola and violin – has established him as an exceptional voice in today’s musical landscape, and made him a sought-after collaborator for established musicians of many genres. Since 2007, Árnason has been an active member of Hjaltalín as a violinist and songwriter. Their releases have been praised by both national and international press and won numerous prizes at the Icelandic Music Awards. In 2008, Árnason co-founded the Skark string ensemble with a focus on contemporary classical compositions, researching the borders of music, art, and science, and ways of combining these in a musical performance with emphasis on audience experience. He has played the strings, conducted, and created arrangements for Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Hauschka, Ólafur Arnalds, Of Monsters and Men, Robot Koch, and Björk among many others. His contributions can be heard in multiple movies and TV series, including the BAFTA-winning series Broadchurch and the multi-award-winning movie Joker.