The Up­beat

a group of people are standing on a stage in front of a large screen .

The Upbeat (Upptakturinn) Composition Award for Children and Youth encourages young people to submit a musical composition or a draft of a composition and receive support to work out their ideas with the artists.

The Upbeat (Upptakturinn) is a collaboration project between Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre, Reykjavik Children's Culture, Iceland University of the Arts, RÚV - The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service and Reykjavik Music City.

The selected pieces will be finished in a workshop with the help of composers and music professionals. After this process, music professionals perform the new musical compositions as part of an ambitious and elegant concert programme in Harpa at the Children's Culture Festival in Reykjavik.

The rules

  • Children and young people in grades 5–10 can participate by submitting a composition, regardless of musical style. Those selected will take part in a workshop with professionals.
  • The composition should be 1–5 minutes long, either a solo or ensemble piece and can be delivered as sheet music, drawing, text, mp3, or video.
  • Submissions should be sent to upptakturinn@harpa.is on February 22, 2026, the latest. They must include the author's name, age, phone number, email, school, title of the piece, and the composition.

After the deadline

Jury
A panel of professionals will serve as the jury and select 12–13 compositions from the submitted ideas.

Workshop
The selected pieces will be fully developed in a composition workshop, which will take place over several days at the Iceland University of the Arts and Harpa in collaboration with composers and music professionals. At the end of this process, new musical works will be created.

Concert and award
The compositions will then be performed at a concert program at Harpa. The concert is part of the Children's Culture Festival in Reykjavík. Professional musicians will handle the performance and execution.All pieces performed at the concert will receive the Composition Award Upptakturinn 2026.

More About The Upbeat

Harpa organises Upptakturinn along with Reykjavík's Children's Culture Festival, the City of Music Reykjavík, RÚV, and the Iceland University of the Arts. Partners include the Association of Southern Municipalities, the East Iceland Music Center, Garðabær, Borgarbyggð, Mosfellsbær, Kópavogur, and the Akureyri Cultural Society.

Introduction