How to Ruin Someone’s Career as a Violist

Amanda Cook (I Care If You Listen): 

– “On the final day, a collaboration between composer S. Gerup and violist Þórhildur Magnúsdóttir titled How to Ruin Someone’s Career as a Violist considered the many types of disabling experiences that can prevent musicians from performing. After an introduction of double stops sliding in and out of unison, rumbling static consumed the space and Þórhildur slid out of her chair into the fetal position on the ground, staring at her instrument with a pained expression. Staged in an open exhibition space, the sounds of chattering crowds filtering in from elsewhere in Harpa was a possibly unintentional yet nevertheless powerful reminder of how isolating disability and grief can be — especially when it feels like life is going on as usual without you.”

Læs hele reportagen fra Dark Music Days 2026 HER.

Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek (Seismograf): 

– “Best work title of the festival must go to the Danish composer S. Gerup: How To Ruin Someone’s Career as a Violist — a quiet study of the meeting between musical skill and human fragility, embodied by violist Þórhildur Magnúsdóttir”.

Læs hele reportagen fra Dark Music Days 2026 HER.

James Black, Artistic Director of Klang:

– “Gerup’s application caught my eye for its unique balance of the public and private – using space and location in peculiar ways to examine personal issues in an intriguingly refined, but still direct, manner. How to ruin someone’s career was no different. This was an extremely moving, curious, and personal work that walked the difficult tightrope of dealing with personal stories without becoming maudlin or over-sentimental. Authentic, vulnerable, fragile, defiant, and above all real”.