Icelandic violinist Hlif Sigurjonsdottir will be in concert with pianist Steven W. Ryan, performing Mozart’s G Major Sonata, Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 8 in G Major, Franck’s Violin Sonata and Fratres by Arvo Part. Admission to the May 12 event is $20 suggested donation. For more information, call 516-586-3433 or https://www.facebook.com/events/158962758113619/.

Hlíf Sigur­jóns­dótt­ir was born in Den­mark and grew up in Iceland, studying the violin with con­cert­master Björn Ólafs­son at the Reykja­vík Col­­lege of Music. She furth­ered her stud­ies at the Uni­ver­sit­ies of Indi­ana and Tor­onto where her teach­ers were Franco Gulli and Lorand Fenyves, fol­low­ed by two wint­ers as a stipend­iary at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada. Later she took private les­sons in New York from the re­nown­ed vio­lin­ist and teacher Gerald Beal. Hlíf has worked with many of the lead­ing mus­­ic­ians of the twen­tieth century, in­clud­ing Wil­liam Prim­rose, Janos Stark­er, Ruggi­ero Ricci, Igor Oist­rach, Gy­örgy Sebok and the memb­ers of the Hung­arian quart­et. Hlíf has given num­er­ous con­certs both as a soloist and with various ensembles and or­chestr­as. In 2014, MRS Classics re­leas­ed her disc DIALOGUS with works for solo violin, all of which were written for her. That disc has been highly acclaim­ed, e.g. by Voix des Arts, and one of Fan­fare Maga­zine’s critics, Maria Nockin, has named it as one of the best CDs of the year 2015. In 2015 MSR Classics re-releas­ed the critic­ally ac­claime­d 2-CD set of her play­ing the Son­at­as and Part­it­as for solo violin by J.S. Bach, first re­leas­ed in 2008. Visit her at http://www.hlifsigurjons.is/index-e.htm.

Steven W. Ryan has been a sought-after pianist in New York City for thirty years. He has been the Dessoff Choir’s accompanist and featured keyboard soloist since 1997. He is also has been the accompanist for the Baldwin Festival Choir here in New York.  He has played celesta with the Berlin Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall; piano, harpsichord, and organ with Dessoff; and synthesizer with the Moody Blues. Conductors he has collaborated with include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Charles Dutoit, Neeme Jäarvi, Sir Neville Marriner, Gerard Schwarz, Lorin Maazel and Maxim Shostakovich. In 2012 Steven was a featured artist in the Dessoff Choir’s first Midwinter Festival, performing Robin Holloway’s Gilded Goldbergs at Weill Recital Hall. In 2011–12 he also appeared on the Stamford Symphony recital series, performed Grammy Award-nominated composer Robert Aldridge’s Piano Trio, and toured in Austria. This is his fourth recital with Hlif Sigurjónsdóttir in New York. His website is at http://stevieryan.com/index.htm