Cantoque Ensemble is an Icelandic vocal ensemble consisting of eight professional singers in the fields of baroque, classical and modern music, as well as on the opera stage.
Members of the Cantoque Ensemble have sung roles in opera, and worked with various orchestras in Iceland as well as on the international stage.

The group was formed in 2017 and their first project was a collaboration with the nordic baroque orchestras Höör Barock from Sweden and Camerata Öresund from Denmark. They held concerts in Iceland, Denmark and Sweden, and their concert in Skálholt Summer music festival got a nomination for best performance of the year at last year´s Icelandic Music price.
Cantoque Ensemble toured Iceland in the summer of 2018, performing an a cappella program of new arrangements of Icelandic folksongs, some of which were written for the group. In the same year they performed Bach Cantatas under the direction of renowned baroque conductor Andreas Spering. Cantoque Ensemble performed St. John´s passion by J. S. Bach with the baroque orchestra Barokkbandið Brák in Iceland, under the conductor Steinar Logi Helgason in 2019. In 2021 they performed the program Nordic Echo at the Skálholt Summer music festival in Iceland, and in two concerts in Denmark with Nordic baroque orchestras: Nylandia Ensemble from Finland; and Camerata Öresund from Denmark.

About the composer

Jon Nordal (1926-) is a prominent Icelandic composer, pianist and teacher. His contributions have made an important mark on Icelandic musical life, his works immersed in Icelandic culture. He studied in Reykjavik, Zurich, Copenhagen, Paris, Rome and Darmstadt. At an early age, the influence of Hindemith was obvious in his Concerto for Orchestra (1949). He was inspired by Theodore Adorno, Webern and Darmstadt as well, Nordal’s most outstanding orchestral works are Choralis (1982) for Viola and Orchestra which employs the Icelandic folk tune of Lilja and was commissioned by Maestro Rostropovich for the Scandinavia Today Exposition in Washington DC, and Tvisongaur in Violin. A member of the Darmstadt Circle in late 1950’s, from 1957 to 1992, Nordal was the director of Reyjavik College of Music. He is highly acclaimed as a proponent of new Icelandic music.
Source: https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/n/no-nz/jon-nordal/