Bryndis Halla Gylfadottir (cello) brynka@vortex.is

Bryndis Halla is principal cellist in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. After studying cello at the Reykjavik College of Music, where Gunnar Kvaran was one of her teachers, she went on to the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she was taught by Colin Carr and Laurence Lesser. She completed the bachelor's degree in 1987, and the master's degree two years later. She took private lessons in Amsterdam for some time after her stay in America, returning to Iceland in the autumn of 1990, in order to assume the position in the orchestra. Bryndis Halla has performed Icelandic contemporary music widely. She received a grant awarded to artists by the Icelandic Ministry of Culture from 1993-96. Bryndis Halla was awarded first prize in the performing artists' section of Tonvakinn, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service's music competition in 1992, the first year this event was held.

Bryndis plays a cello made by Hans Johannsson in 1999.

Here are a few sound examples, chosen not for the musical content, but for an idea of the sound of the instrument.

.Bryndis playing a short improvisation on a cello made in 1990

Bryndis playing an excerpt from the Cello concerto no1. by Dmitri Sjostakovitsj

Bryndis playing the opening of the Sjostakovitsj with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra