Elísabet Waage

A harpist, born in Reykjavík, who studied piano with Halldór Haraldsson and harp with Monika Abendroth at Tónlistarskólinn í Reykjavík. After her piano teaching diploma she went to the Netherlands, where she took a harp teaching diploma in 1985 and a soloist's diploma in 1987 at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, studying with Edward Witsenburg. Soon after she graduated, her duo with the flautist Peter Verduyn Lunel was taken into Young Musician, the Dutch organisation under Yehudi Menuhin's patronage. She lived and worked in the Netherlands for many years and moved home in 2002. She has played with the Iceland Symphony, the Noord Nederlands Orkest, the Residentie Orkest and the Radio Symphonie Orkest, has been with Caput since the group was founded, and has played for years with the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra. She plays in a violin and harp duo with Laufey Sigurðardóttir and a cello and harp duo with Gunnar Kvaran. In 1993 she played Mist Þorkelsdóttir's harp concerto at the World Harp Congress in Copenhagen, and she appeared at the congress in Amsterdam in 2008. A good many Icelandic composers have written for her.