Choral Summit, day 4

The World Symposium on Choral Music continues in Copenhagen through the weekend. Brian Newhouse is covering the event for Performance Today...and having avoided arrest after mistakenly sitting in the Queen's box at the Opera House, he seems to be enjoying every minute of it. Here's another report from Brian -- and don't miss the audio link at the end of his note.
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I wish I'd zoomed the camera in a little tighter on this shot, because what I saw in that moment was the reason this event matters to so many people.

The choir * is a college-aged group from Iceland. They've just sung their hearts out on the World Choral stage, and the look on so many of those faces in that moment was of intense pride.

Only about 300,000 people speak Icelandic, who know their old, old stories. These kids have learned those stories through choral music written just for them. They sang as if they couldn't give us anything better.

Here's a little sample of their performance.

* Hamrahlidarkorinn, or The Hamrahlid Choir. Porgerdur Ingolfsdottir, founder and conductor.