How three Holocaust era Jewish refugees built Iceland’s classical music scene from scratch

Three Jewish refugee musicians, Robert Abraham, Victor Urbancic, and Heinz Edelstein, who fled Nazi Germany in the late 1930s, are credited with establishing Iceland's classical music scene. Despite Iceland's initial hostility to Jewish immigration and lack of musical infrastructure, these individuals, none of whom were practicing Jews, were accepted due to a combination of luck, timing, and personal connections. They arrived in a small fishing port, Reykjavík, which had no concert hall or professional orchestra.

• Urbancic became the chief conductor of the Reykjavík Orchestra, which evolved into the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and introduced major classical works and opera to the country.
• Abraham became a central figure in Icelandic choral music, founded the Philharmonia Choral Society, and directed music for the Church of Iceland.
• Edelstein was instrumental in developing music schools and teaching programs, essentially building the country's conservatory tradition.

Their story, detailed in Árni Heimir Ingólfsson's book “Music at World's End,” highlights how these multi-talented individuals, willing to take on diverse roles, filled a critical need for institutional development as Iceland sought independence from Denmark. Ingólfsson notes, "They essentially created it." The narrative of their significant contributions remained largely untold for decades due to factors like xenophobia and the nascent field of musicology in Iceland, but is now gaining recognition.