Music at World's End: Three Exiled Musicians from Nazi Germany and Austria, and Their Contributions to Music in Iceland
|
Book Talk
Produced by the American Society for Jewish Music’s Jewish Music Forum Co-sponsored by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Admission: Free Registration is required. |
In Iceland in the 1930s, classical music was only beginning to be seriously practiced, at the same time when musicians of Jewish heritage were fleeing Nazi Germany and Austria. Despite the country's strict immigration policy, three outstanding young musicians were allowed to settle there: Robert Abraham, Heinz Edelstein, and Victor Urbancic. Their influence on Iceland's music scene as conductors, instrumentalists, teachers, and scholars proved invaluable. In Music at World's End, the first in-depth study of the lives and careers of these three musicians, musicologist Árni Ingólfsson examines their formative years in Germany and Austria, their dramatic escapes from the Nazi regime, and their triumphs and frustrating setbacks in their new homeland, a country in which Jews were virtually unknown. This fascinating case study is a valuable addition to studies of musical exile during World War II and beyond.
Reviews:
“A pioneering work in exile music research.” — Albrecht Dümling, musica reanimata Society, Berlin
“Ingólfsson has written an immensely readable and informative book ... this is a wonderful book.” — Michael Haas, Music and Letters, 2025.
“Music at World’s End offers a wealth of new details and insight, with many new perspectives and details about how foreign musicians essentially built the foundation for classical music in Iceland.” — Kimberly Cannady, Senior Lecturer, Victoria University.
“Pioneering, perceptive, and eloquent, this book uncovers a fascinating chapter of music history that has largely been overlooked. Ingólfsson's study enriches our understanding of the interplay of migration and isolation, far from and yet in conversation with mainland Europe. This exploration of how music bridges worlds and transcends borders feels more timely than ever.” — Tina Frühauf, CUNY Graduate Center, New York.
About the Speaker
Árni Heimir Ingólfsson is an Icelandic musicologist, lecturer, and pianist. He has published widely on music history both in Icelandic and English. His monograph Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland was published by Indiana University Press in 2019 and was listed as one of that year’s best books on music by Alex Ross of The New Yorker.
Ingólfsson’s latest book, Music at World’s End (SUNY Press, 2025), is a study of the Jewish musicians who fled Germany and Austria to Iceland in the 1930s, and their significant and lasting contribution to the music scene there. The Icelandic version of this book was nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize, and was listed as one of the year’s best non-fiction books by Iceland’s leading newspaper.
Praised as “a terrific lecturer” by American Record Guide, Ingólfsson has given lectures and pre-concert talks throughout the world, including in Europe, Asia, and the United States. He was a special guest speaker at the LA Philharmonic’s Reykjavík Festival in 2017, an Erasmus guest lecturer at the Vienna Conservatory of Music, and has held visiting fellowships at Oxford, Harvard, and Yale Universities.