Sigrún Sævarsdóttir-Griffiths

Biography

Sigrún Sævarsdóttir-Griffiths is a musician, educator and leader of creative and collaborative music making within higher education and a vast range of artistic and community contexts, across England, Europe, the US and Asia.

For 12 years, Sigrun was Course Leader of the Masters in Leadership Programme at Guildhall School, where she now is an academic leader for Social Arts Practice music electives and continues to lecture and lead artistic work. 

Sigrún is a visiting lecturer at the Iceland Arts Academy and has led independent professional training courses for music teachers and conductors in Reykjavik each year since 2006.

Sigrun was one of the founding members and lead tutors of the award-winning Guildhall Connect Programme which won the Queen’s Award in 2005.

Sigrun´s area of specialism is leading creative work with vulnerable groups of people, particularly within areas of mental health, adult rehabilitation and homelessness. 

Sigrun is artistic leader of The Messengers, a 35-piece band of Guildhall students and people with lived experience of homelessness. The Messengers have broken new ground as a socially engaged project, playing at major venues and recording for international record labels. In 2020 the band released its debut album Bear Witness.

Sigrún is founder and artistic leader of MetamorPhonics, a community interest company based on the Messengers project model. MetamorPhonics promote meaningful engagement with the arts, positive relationships, personal growth and wellbeing for people in recovery from major life trauma which has caused significant disruption in their lives, including homelessness. The programme offers students in higher education specific, socially engaged learning experiences and supports their training by providing exposure to arts practice in diverse environments and in delivering music projects with vulnerable adults.

Sigrun’s latest band with MetamorPhonics, Korda Samfonia- was nominated for the Iceland Music Awards in 2022 in the category Event of the Year, for the band’s debut performance at Harpa Concert Hall in May 2021. Korda´s debut album Ég sé þig was released on Spotify in May 2022, the same day as a TV programme about the band and it´s members was shown on national TV.

Sigrún´s past and current employers include The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Thornton School of Music (University of Southern California) London Symphony Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, English National Ballet, Bath International Music Festival, BBC, ITV, Tokyo Collage of Music, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (Singapore), Casa da Musica (Portugal), European Music Council and Reykjavik Arts Festival.

Sigrun is passionate about enabling music making and access to the arts as an essential, unifying element of life, for every person-in every community.