The Los Angeles Philharmonic will present the US Premiere of ARCHORA by Anna Thorvaldsdottir in performances conducted by Eva Ollikainen on May 11, 13 and 14. The piece, which was commissioned by the LA Phil and five other international organisations, was premiered at last year’s BBC Proms. In the composer’s words, the work’s core inspiration ‘centres around the notion of a primordial energy and the idea of an omnipresent parallel realm’.
Anna Thorvaldsdottir discusses ARCHORA - her latest orchestral work
ARCHORA features on the latest album of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s music, which is released on the Sono Luminus label on Friday May 26. It is paired with her largest orchestral score to date, AIŌN, and is performed by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra conducted Eva Ollikainen.
The composer’s latest piece, Ubique, is a substantial new work for solo flute, ensemble and electronics, composed for flautist Claire Chase as part of her ongoing Density 2036 commissioning project. The world premiere will take place at New York’s Carnegie Hall on May 25 where Chase will be joined by cellists Katinka Kleijn and Seth Parker Woods, pianist Cory Smythe and Levy Lorenzo, live sound.
About Anna Thorvaldsdottir
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.
