Anna Thorvaldsdottir
b. 1977
Icelandic
Summary
Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b. 1977) is an Icelandic composer whose "seemingly boundless textural imagination” (NY Times) and "striking” (Guardian) sound world has made her "one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary music” (NPR). "Never less than fascinating” (Gramophone), her music is composed as much by sounds and nuances as by harmonies and lyrical material, and tends to evoke "a sense of place and personality” (NY Times) through a distinctive "combination of power and intimacy” (Gramophone). It is written as an ecosystem of sounds, where materials continuously grow in and out of each other, often inspired in an important way by nature and its many qualities, in particular structural ones, like proportion and flow. Anna’s works have been nominated and awarded on many occasions - most notably, her "confident and distinctive handling of the orchestra” (Gramophone) has garnered her the prestigious Nordic Council Music Prize, the New York Philharmonic's Kravis Emerging Composer Award, and Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award and Martin E. Segal Award.
Her music has been featured at several major venues and music festivals, including portrait concerts at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival in NYC, the Composer Portraits Series at NYC's Miller Theatre, the Leading International Composers series at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, Big Ears Festival, Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, Brooklyn's National Sawdust, London's Spitalfields Music Festival, Münchener Kammerorchester's Nachtmusic der Moderne series, and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra's Point Festival. Other venues include the BBC Proms, ISCM World Music Days, Nordic Music Days, Ultima Festival, Lucerne Summer Festival, Beijing Modern Music Festival, Reykjavik Arts Festival, Tectonics, Helsinki's Musica Nova Festival, and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
Anna holds a PhD (2011) from the University of California in San Diego. She is currently based in the London area.
Critical Acclaim
With her music’s humbling vastness and depth of colour, this Icelander is a force to be reckoned with… - Andrew Mellor, GramophoneThe thing that impresses me about Anna Thorvaldsdottir's music is that all of it sounds inevitable, it sounds as if it has to exist.
- Steve Smith, Boston Globe
[Thorvaldsdottir] Icelandic composer creates small worlds for the ear to inhabit, rather than musical narratives for an audience to follow. It’s music of meditation, less driven by lines than by individual sonic events. And it’s propelled this 42-year-old to the front ranks of classical music.
- Anne Midgette, Washington Post
...Ms. Thorvaldsdottir's music conjures unseen worlds. In her score, she asks the players to execute particular passages "with calm and ease and a subtle sense of brokenness." The beauty of this instruction mirrors the sounds that it produces, infused with a balance of anxiety and luminescence that feels wholly contemporary.
- William Robin, New York Times
...The composer explores unconventional techniques. The pianist strikes the strings with mallets, the string players bow eccentrically, and there are brief harmonic convergences that leave you breathless. The work beings with an imperceptible rumble, it subsides to a mild roar, and it all seems to shimmer. Thorvaldsdottir has escorted us through an unforgettable journey.
- Allan Ulrich, Financial Times
Biography
Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s (b. 1977) “seemingly boundless textural imagination” (NY Times) and “striking” (Guardian) sound world has made her “one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary music” (NPR). Her music is composed as much by sounds and nuances as by harmonies and lyrical material – it is written as an ecosystem of sounds, where materials continuously grow in and out of each other, often inspired in an important way by nature and its many qualities, in particular structural ones, like proportion and flow.
Anna’s “detailed and powerful” (Guardian) orchestral writing has garnered her awards from the New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center, the Nordic Council, and the UK’s Ivors Academy, as well as commissions by many of the world’s top orchestras. Her symphony-scale AION was premiered by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Anna-Maria Helsing, in May 2019. Her latest orchestral work CATAMORPHOSIS was premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko in January 2021 and will receive its UK and US premieres by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. And “while [she] has made the symphony orchestra her own,” according to Gramophone Magazine, “her chamber music is cut from the same cloth and somehow sounds with much the same combination of immensity and intimacy.” Enigma – Anna’s “mesmerising” (BBC Music Magazine) first string quartet – was recorded and released by Sono Luminus in August 2021, performed by the Spektral Quartet, and was one of the New York Times’s recordings of the year (“a masterly entrance to the genre”). Portrait albums with Anna’s works have appeared on Deutsche Grammophon, Sono Luminus, and Innova.
Anna’s music is widely performed internationally and has been commissioned by many of the world’s leading orchestras, ensembles, and arts organizations – such as the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Intercontemporain, and Carnegie Hall. Among the many other orchestras and ensembles that have performed her music include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Bang on a Can All-Stars, BBC Singers, The Crossing, the Bavarian Radio Choir, Münchener Kammerorchester, Avanti Chamber Ensemble, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Portrait concerts with Anna’s music have been featured at several major venues and music festivals, including Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival in NYC, London’s Spitalfields Music Festival, Münchener Kammerorchester’s Nachtmusic der Moderne series, the Composer Portraits Series at NYC’s Miller Theatre, the Leading International Composers series at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra’s Point Festival. Other venues include the BBC Proms, ISCM World Music Days, Nordic Music Days, Ultima Festival, Lucerne Summer Festival, Beijing Modern Music Festival, Reykjavik Arts Festival, Tectonics, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Helsinki’s Musica Nova Festival, and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
Anna is currently based in the London area. She regularly teaches and gives presentations on composition, in academic settings, as part of residencies, and in private lessons. Invited lectures and presentations include Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Northwestern, University of Chicago, Sibelius Academy, and the Royal Academy of Music in London. Anna is currently Composer-in-Residence with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. She holds a PhD (2011) from the University of California in San Diego.
News
Performances
9th August 2022
- SOLOISTS
- Sarah Dacey, soprano; Gavin Roberts, piano
- LOCATION
- Great Hall, Dartington Trust, Devon, United Kingdom
11th August 2022
- ARCHORAWorld Premiere
- PERFORMERS
- BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
- CONDUCTOR
- Eva Ollikainen
- LOCATION
- Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom
14th August 2022
- PERFORMERS
- Musicians from Voksenåsen Summer Academy
- CONDUCTOR
- Peter Herresthal
- LOCATION
- Voksenåsen Hotel, Oslo, Norway
8th September 2022
- ARCHORACountry Premiere
- PERFORMERS
- Iceland Symphony Orchestra
- CONDUCTOR
- Eva Ollikainen
- LOCATION
- Harpa, Reykjavik, Iceland
9th September 2022
- ARCHORACountry Premiere
- PERFORMERS
- Tiroler Symphonieorchester Innsbruck
- CONDUCTOR
- Kerem Hasan
- LOCATION
- Tirol Saal, Innsbruck, Austria
Features
- Icelandic Voices
- With only a population of around 350,000, Iceland punches well above its weight in so many creative and sporting fields – not least in classical music. Some of the most up-and-coming voices in the film, media and classical, names such as Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Jóhann Jóhannsson and Hildur Guðnadóttir, have come this remote corner of the north Atlantic Ocean and created a worldwide reputation of excellence. Discover the work of three such composers, from three different generations, published by Wise Music.
- Opera for Socially Distanced Performance
- Wise Music Classical is pleased to share a collection of dynamic dramatic works for small forces.
- Anna Thorvaldsdottir on CATAMORPHOSIS
- On January 29, the latest orchestral work by Anna Thorvaldsdottir - CATAMORPHOSIS - is premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic
- Seeing Music: More Socially Distanced Onstage Works
- Take a visual tour through highlights of the Wise Music Catalogue. Part two of a series.
- Socially Distanced Onstage Works
- With times of uncertainty ahead for the classical music community, we have compiled a selection of repertoire for small orchestra and chamber ensembles that allows for onstage social distancing.