NorthernLight

When rehearsals are over for the day and there is still light in the soft Nordic sky, a handful of players from the Iceland Symphony Orchestra (ISO) will slip out of the magnificent Harpa concert hall, which looms like a glittering glass iceberg over Reykjavík’s spectacular harbour, and jump into their jointly owned fishing boat moored nearby. For a nation that for centuries has gathered the major part of its income in the nets of its trawlers, it’s perhaps only natural that its musicians should head out to sea to enjoy their share of the sharp arctic air and the brooding ocean’s bounty.

It’s one tiny example of just how tightly this orchestra is bound up in the life of this seafaring island. While today it draws musicians from all over the world, the majority are Icelanders, some the product of an education system that recognises music as a core subject from kindergarten onwards. Most of the larger towns have