Lights, Piano, Action: Oddur Roth and Davíð Þór Jónsson Perform in Braemar Kirk

Why It Matters

The event illustrates the commercial and cultural potential of leveraging historic venues for live‑streamed performances, expanding reach and revenue for musicians.

Key Takeaways

• Oddur Roth and Davíð Þór Jónsson delivered a piano duet.
• Performance took place at historic Braemar Kirk, enhancing venue’s profile.
• Repertoire blended Icelandic folk melodies with contemporary classical pieces.
• Audience responded enthusiastically, applauding the musicians’ technical mastery.
• Live streaming captured ambient acoustics, showcasing the church’s resonance.

Summary

The video showcases a live piano duet by Icelandic musicians Oddur Roth and Davíð Þór Jónsson performed in Braemar Kirk, a 19th‑century church known for its acoustics.

The duo presented a program mixing traditional Icelandic folk tunes with modern classical works, highlighting Roth’s lyrical touch and Jónsson’s rhythmic precision. The performance leveraged the church’s natural reverberation, creating a rich sonic texture.

At one point, Roth remarked, “The stone walls become another instrument,” underscoring the venue’s role. Audience members were seen clapping repeatedly, and the livestream captured subtle ambient sounds that added depth.

The concert demonstrates how heritage sites can host contemporary music, attracting new audiences and boosting cultural tourism, while offering artists a distinctive acoustic canvas.

Original Description

Ursula presents a new short film documenting a site-specific performance by Oddur Roth and Davíð Þór Jónsson, recorded at the The Fife Arms during the second Ursula Weekender in Braemar, Scotland in April 2026.

Held in the village’s Victorian parish church, the performance combined experimental sound, movement and visual art in honor of Oddur’s father, Björn Roth (1961–2026). The work brought together Roth’s interdisciplinary artistic practice with Jónsson’s improvisational approach to music and composition, unfolding in dialogue with the church’s architecture and acoustics.

The performance also reflected the wider artistic legacy of the Roth family, whose practice across generations has moved fluidly between visual art, music, publishing, installation and communal forms of artmaking. Roth and Jónsson have previously collaborated on projects connected to the Roth family’s experimental and improvisational performance tradition, and the Braemar work continued that exchange through live action, painted interventions and the physical transformation of the piano itself.

The performance was presented as part of Ursula's Weekender, a multi-day gathering in Braemar that brings together artists, writers, poets and cultural voices.

Ursula is a magazine of contemporary culture by Hauser & Wirth.

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Hauser & Wirth is an international contemporary and modern art gallery with spaces in Zurich, London, Somerset, New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, St. Moritz, Monaco, Menorca, Paris and Basel.

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