Community Projects

Please note that it is not necessary to speak or understand Icelandic to participate in Tónagull in Icelandic with your children. The games and activities are easy for everyone to follow. Tónagull in Icelandic uses Icelandic verses and songs that are important for the language acquisition of all children growing up in Iceland, regardless of origin and mother tongue.

Tonagull offers family music sessions for Polish and Ukrainian speaking families who choose to nurture their native language through family musicking using the Tonagull method. Tonagull is also working with international groups where there is more emphasis on nurturing musical communication without language.

Family Musicking with immigrant families in Iceland

Tónagull po Polsku

Ukrainian version of Tónagull

Nýtt 2025: Tónagull og Hafnarfjarðarbær bjóða upp á fjöltyngda tónlistarsmiðju fyrir fjölskyldur með börn á aldrinum 0-4 ára. Fyrsti tíminn er á föstudag milli klukkan 9.30-10.30 og svo vikulega. Sjá nánar hér: https://hafnarfjordur.is/tonlistarsmidja-fyrir-born-0-4-ara-a-fostudogum/

New in 2025: Tónagull is collaborating with Hafnarfjörður municipality on multi lingual family music workshops where we communicate through music and less with words. A wonderful method to connect socially with other families of young children. 

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In response to the arrival of Ukrainian refugees in 2022, a Ukrainian version of Tónagull was launched, empowered by a grant from the Icelandic Children’s Culture Fund (Barnamenningarsjóður 2022). Recordings of the Polish and the Ukrainian folk music and rhymes used in the sessions are published on streaming services such as Spotify 
Funding from the Children’s Culture Fund expired in 2023. The Ukrainian family music sessions are continued in the fall of 2024 though support by the Red Cross in Reykjavík by providing location and covering the teacher salaries.
Tónagull po polsku (Tónagull in Polish) was launched in 2019. The music sessions offered to Polish families living in Iceland are weekly group music sessions with parents and children, mostly between 0 and 3 years of age, although all family members are welcome to join the sessions. In the Polish version of the “Tónagull” sessions, the teachers are Polish speaking musicians, and the songs and rhymes are chosen from the traditional Polish repertoire, while following the same structure and methodology as the Icelandic sessions. Initially, the Polish family music sessions received some start-up funding from the Polish Embassy in Iceland (in 2019) for buying necessary equipment such as appropriate musical instruments. Currently, the program receives support at the municipal level through access to free locales at cultural centres (Gerðurberg and Hafnarborg) while families pay a small fee for participation as a token of commitment. Teachers are not always compensated for their work and sometimes their contribution is entirely on a voluntary basis.

The TONAMUS music streaming

The songs and rhymes for the Parent-child music sessions in Polish. Supported by a grant from the Iceland Children’s Culture fund 2022. Click on image to listen on Spotify

Songs and rhymes for the Parent-child music sessions in Ukrainian. Supported by a grant from the Iceland Children’s Culture fund 2022. Click on image to listen on Spotify

Songs and rhymes for the Icelandic content from the original Tónagull. Recorded in 2004. Now available on spotify and other streaming services. Learn Icelandic  musically and naturally through traditional nursery rhymes.