Full biog, Ásdís 2024
Ásdís Valdimarsdóttir comes from Reykjavík, Iceland. Her musical education took her to the Juilliard School in New York and later to Germany. She was always drawn to playing chamber music and has been invited to many prestigious Festivals around the world. Ásdís has been a member of many wonderful ensembles; most notably as principal viola of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the violist of three major string quartets; The Miami, Chilingirian and Utrecht string quartets. She has made numerous cd and radio recordings with these ensembles.
More recently she has made several cd’s for Zefir records. Her double cd with the title ‘The Voice of the Viola in times of oppression’ with the pianist Marcel Worms was chosen as cd of the year 2019 and given a 10 by the Dutch music magazine Luister. They include works by some less well known Jewish composers and some better known great masters such as Shostakovich, Weinberg and Mendelsohn. With her string trio, the Brunsvik String Trio, she recorded the complete String Trios of Beethoven for the composer’s 250th anniversary. Her most recent cd recording will came out in 2022 and has the title ‘Stolen Schubert’. This CD has her transcriptions for viola of works by Schubert; the Arpeggione Sonata, Hirt Auf dem Felsen, Auf dem Stom and songs from the Winterreise. It is recorded with gut strings on the viola and an Erard piano from 1851, with the pianist Edward Janning and the soprano Katharine Dain.
Ásdís Valdimarsdóttir has previously been on the faculty of the Trinity College and the Royal College of Music in London and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. She currently teaches viola and chamber music at the Royal Conservatory The Hague. Since 2015 she has been a member of the Association of Body Mapping Educators and qualified as a teacher in november 2022. Body Mapping is a method for preventing physical injuries in musicians that is informed by the Alexander Technique, and is an integral part of her teaching. A new edition of her arrangement for viola of the Fantasies for Gamba by G.F. Telemann was published by the French publisher Billaudot in early 2024 and a recording of the same will be made with HR Records later this year.