Eva Þyri Hilmarsdóttir
Pianist
After graduating from the Reykjavík College of Musicwith Diplomas in piano pedagogy and pianoperformance, Eva Þyri Hilmarsdóttir furthered her studies in Denmark at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, receiving an Advanced Soloist Diploma, and in The Royal Academy of Music in London, where she graduated from the MA Piano Accompaniment course with a Distinction and was awarded a DipRAM and the Christian Carpenter Piano Prize for an outstanding final recital.
Her teachers were Þorsteinn Gauti Sigurðsson, Halldór Haraldsson, Prof. John Damgård and Michael Dussek.
Aside from giving solo recitals, Eva Thyri takes an avid interest in chamber music and lied and has given numerous first performances of Icelandic and foreign compositions, appearing in festvals such as Dark Music Days in Reykjavik, Ung Nordisk Musik, Young Euro Classic Festival in Berlin, Young Composers Symposium, London and Opera Days. She also participated in over one hundred recitals dedicated to Icelandic music in the series Pearls of Icelandic song in Harpa concert house.
In 2017 Eva Þyri participated in The Icelandic Opera’s production of La Voix Humaine by Poulenc, and in December 2018 she and Erla Dóra Vogler mezzosoprano released a cd with works for solo voice and piano by Jórunn Viðar, in celebration of her 100th birthday. The cd was nomitated as album of the year for The Icelandic Music Awards.
Eva Þyri is the co-founder and pianist of a new annual Lieder-festival in Hannesarholt; „Ljóðið lifi“.
Eva Þyri teaches at Iceland University of the Arts alongside giving recitals.
