She made her name when she sang with the legendary folk band Spilverk Þjóðanna 1975-78, and has made numerous recordings of folk music, popular music, lieder and operatic arias. The members of the Wind Sextet of Mosfellsdalur are all veterans of the classical scene and their arrangements are renowned for the quality. Most of the Icelandic melodies on this program were composed by men who played important roles in the growing Icelandic music life in the first half of the 20th century. Two of the composers are still in their prime and are among the leading composers of Iceland today, in different fields of music though. In 1995, when Atli Heimir Sveinsson wrote the melody for the Marian prayer by Halldór Laxness, the poem had recently been discovered. The future Nobel Prize laureate wrote it shortly after he had converted to Catholicism for a period of time in the twenties. The Ave Maria of Gunnar Þórðarson and the Rev. Sigurður Helgi Guðmundsson is the newest piece on the programme. It is included in the High Mass from the year 2000 by the two men and indicates that Mary still has the power to stir the imagination of Icelandic artists. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.