Composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s “seemingly boundless textural imagination” (The New York Times) and striking 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 lyricism – it is written as an ecosystem of sounds, where materials continuously grow in and out of each other so that the familiar becomes abstract and the abstract feels familiar.
Thorvaldsdottir’s 2026-2027 season features performances of her music in more than 17 countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, Iceland, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United States, with 22 orchestras performing her works in 13 countries. Her current schedule is available on her website and will be updated with additional performances throughout the year.
A major highlight of the season will be the premiere performances of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s new symphony, Shadows of Solace. The work is a critical addition to Thorvaldsdottir’s “ever-growing and ever more essential catalogue of orchestral pieces” (BBC Radio 3), her unique command of the orchestra on vivid display. Two of the co-commissioning orchestras, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dalia Stasevska (world premiere, January 27-28, 2027) and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tabita Berglund (country premiere, March 11, 2027), will perform the monumental new 38-minute piece this season. The other two co-commissioners, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, will perform Shadows of Solace in future seasons.
“Shadows of Solace is a deeply personal piece but at the same time centres around shared human themes,” Anna says. “I invite the audience into this world and to make it their own.”
“Thorvaldsdottir is incapable of writing music that doesn’t immediately transfix an open-eared listener.” – The New York Times
In addition, Anna’s chamber opera UR_ will have its UK premiere in a new production directed and designed by Netia Jones, Associate Director of The Royal Opera, from May 27 to June 2 2027 at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre. In addition to composing the opera, Anna also created the narrative, words, and phonetic textures with title and additional text by Mette Karlsvik. The one-hour opera was commissioned in 2015 by Far North in cooperation with Theater Trier in Germany, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, and the Norwegian National Opera. These performances of UR_ follow The Royal Ballet’s performances in 2023 and 2026 of Wayne McGregor's Untitled, choreographed to Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s METACOSMOS and CATAMORPHOSIS.
Following her appointment as the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich’s Creative Chair in 2024-2025 and her role as Composer-in-Residence with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (HPO) in 2025-2026, Anna is now serving as Composer-in-Residence of Bozar, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels and the Composer-in-Residence of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra in Norway for the 2026-2027 season.
From September 2026 through June 2027, Bozar presents a wide range of Anna’s music as part of her 2026–2027 residency. The season opened on September 11 2026 with Aeriality, performed by the Belgian National Orchestra conducted by Michael Halls. On November 15 2026, Quatuor Diotima will perform selections from Anna’s string quartet Enigma, followed on November 25 2026 by Het Collectief's performance of Spectra for chamber ensemble. On 4 December 2026, the Belgian National Orchestra conducted by Eva Ollikainen performs CATAMORPHOSIS, and on January 16 2027 the Antwerpen Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Osmo Vänskä, brings METACOSMOS to Bozar. The residency continues on May 28 2027 with the Belgian premiere of Anna’s cello concerto Before we fall performed by Julian Steckel with the Belgian National Orchestra, Michael Schønwandt conducting. The residency culminates on June 21 2027 with Anna’s orchestral music-installation piece for deconstructed orchestra, METAXIS, performed by the Belgian National Orchestra under Tom De Cock at the multi-level Galerie Ravenstein. METAXIS is an immersive orchestral work which invites audiences to move freely among the musicians, who are spread throughout the space.
From August 2026 through May 2027, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra will feature three works by Anna Thorvaldsdottir as part of her residency. On 20 August 2026, the orchestra opened its season with METACOSMOS conducted by Andrew Manze at Stavanger Concert Hall. On October 1 2026, the orchestra gave the Scandinavian premiere of Anna’s cello concerto Before we fall performed by Johannes Moser with Joshua Weilerstein conducting. For the concluding performance on May 13 2027, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra will perform METAXIS, conducted by Ingar Bergby and assisted by Rui Marques, in the architecturally striking multi-level Stavanger Concert Hall foyer.
Anna’s large orchestral works METACOSMOS (2017), CATAMORPHOSIS (2020), ARCHORA (2022), and her cello concerto Before we fall (2025) continue to receive country and local premieres as well as repeat performances throughout the world:
Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s "volcanic" (The Times) cello concerto Before we fall was written for cellist Johannes Moser, and co-commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, BBC Proms, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, and Odense Symphony Orchestra. Of its world premiere by the San Francisco Symphony led by Dalia Stasevska in May 2025, the San Francisco Chronicle raved, “Thorvaldsdottir’s new cello concerto, Before we fall, is a banger, sonically and intellectually. . . Moser played throughout with both thrilling splendor and fierce intimacy. . .Thorvaldsdottir’s sound world, both delicate and massive, is like no other. . . in [Dalia] Stasevska’s hands, [it] induced a trancelike sense of being outside of time.” The UK premiere at the BBC Proms by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ollikainen was similarly praised, with The Guardian reporting that “the concerto has an elemental, immersive quality, its symphonic textures seeming at times to breath as if a living organism.” Before we fall will have at least seven performances this season. In addition to the performances by the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Belgian National Orchestra, the Odense Symphony Orchestra, a co-commissioner of the piece, gives the Danish premiere conducted by Pierre Bleuse (October 8 2026); the Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg, with Valerie Fritz as soloist and conducted by André de Ridder, performs at the Konzerthaus in Freiburg, Germany (December 15 2026). The Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra, with Johannes Moser as soloist and conducted by Olari Elts, gives the piece’s Asian premiere at the National Concert Hall in Taipei (March 13 2027). The Real Filharmonía de Galicia, also with Johannes Moser and conducted by Baldur Brönnimann, performs the work twice in Spain at the Auditorio de Galicia in Santiago de Compostela (March 18 2027) and the Palacio da Ópera in A Coruña (March 20 2027).
ARCHORA will have at least ten performances this season, bringing the total number of performances of the work to over fifty since its premiere in 2022. The Oslo Philharmonic conducted by Dalia Stasevska performed the piece at Oslo Concert Hall (September 3 2026); the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Stasevska performs ARCHORA at the Berlin Philharmonie (November 8 2026); the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tabita Berglund gives three performances at Orchestra Hall in Detroit, Michigan (January 14-16 2027); the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by Stasevska performs the work at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in New York City (March 31 2027); and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stasevska gives four performances in Sydney, Australia (April 21-24 2027). Of the world premiere of ARCHORA, The Guardian reported, “Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s music is about mass and density, how different planes of sounds collide and combine, and how intricately detailed textures evolve over time. Those qualities make the orchestra the obvious medium for her work, and it has largely been through her sequence of strikingly effective orchestral scores that the Iceland-born composer has become recognised as one of the most distinctive voices in European music today." ARCHORA was commissioned by the BBC Proms and co-commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and Klangspuren Schwaz, and was premiered in August 2022 at the BBC Proms by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Ollikainen in a concert selected as among The Guardian’s Classical Highlights of 2022.
CATAMORPHOSIS will be performed several times this season, bringing the total number of performances of the piece to over fifty since 2021. Performances this season include the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic conducted by Anna Sułkowska-Migoń at the National Forum of Music in Wrocław, Poland (April 30 2027); the Belgian National Orchestra conducted by Eva Ollikainen at Bozar in Brussels, as part of Thorvaldsdottir's residency (December 4 2026); the Antwerpen Symphony Orchestra conducted by Karel Deseure at Queen Elisabeth Hall in Antwerpen (February 20 2027); and the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin conducted by André de Ridder at the Konzerthaus Berlin (June 10 2027), the third Berlin orchestra to perform the piece, the work having previously been performed by the Berlin Philharmonic (world premiere) and by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. CATAMORPHOSIS, premiered in 2021, was commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Of the piece The Guardian reported, “Thorvaldsdottir’s impressive new work was detailed and powerful ... Lasting around 20 minutes, it’s a single movement of restrained power, a continuum of shifting, colliding layers of sound, which are minutely detailed in the score yet manage to seem simultaneously massive and delicate as they move from dense chromaticism to moments of almost lucid tonality ... this scrupulously prepared and wonderfully performed premiere showed that it’s a piece that stands entirely on its own feet, creating an utterly convincing musical world.”
METACOSMOS will have at least seven performances this season. The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Tabita Berglund performed the piece twice at Konserthuset in Stockholm (September 23-24 2026); the Brockton Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Masko performs at Christ Congregational Church in Brockton, Massachusetts (October 18 2026); the University of Utah Philharmonia conducted by Robert Baldwin performs at Libby Gardner Hall in Salt Lake City, Utah (December 9 2026). The Antwerpen Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Osmo Vänskä, gives two performances at Queen Elisabeth Hall in Antwerpen (January 15) and at Bozar in Brussels as part of Thorvaldsdottir's residency (January 16). The Horsham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Steve Dummer performs the piece at The Capitol in Horsham, England (June 26 2027). METACOSMOS was premiered by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen in 2018 and in Europe by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert in January 2019. The Boston Globe reported, “There is possibly no other composer working today who is so adept at channeling the massive forces of nature, and given a full orchestral sound palette to play with, [Thorvaldsdottir] goes wild. Writing lines that ride the knife edge of order and chaos and giving poetic but direct suggestions to the musicians, she immerses listeners in eerie, irresistible landscapes of sound.”
In addition, Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s chamber orchestra piece Aequilibria will have three performances this season, all in Canada. Turning Point Ensemble conducted by Owen Underhill performs the piece twice at the Annex Theater in Vancouver (October 17-18 2026), and the University of Toronto's Contemporary Music Ensemble conducted by Wallace Halladay performs it at Walter Hall in Toronto (October 20 2026). Aequilibria was commissioned by BIT20 Ensemble and recorded by International Contemporary Ensemble on Sono Luminus. The Wall Street Journal writes of the piece, “A cello drone gives way to busy, distant-sounding string and wind passages; brass writing moves between ominous, sustained tone, textured buzzing and Wagnerian heft, and a mournful alto flute line hovers briefly over a bleak ensemble texture. Shortly before the piece ends, unexpected percussion bursts and delicate piano tracery push the music toward an eerie landscape – a musical equivalent of magical realism.”
Another of Anna’s chamber orchestra pieces, Hrím, was performed by Het Muziek at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam on September 10. Hrím was premiered by CAPUT Ensemble at the National Gallery of Iceland in 2010. The piece is inspired by the notion of dispersion, represented as release and echoing in the sense that single elements in the music are released and spread through the ensemble in various ways throughout the process of the piece. The music is in one short movement. Of Hrím, the New York Times writes, “[Hrím] perfectly encapsulates her uncanny knack for conjuring the natural world. … Not through quaint, picturesque mimicry, but with potent evocations of elemental power, flux and potential.”
Anna’s chamber ensemble music will also be performed throughout the world during the 2026–2027 season. Illumine was performed by Het Nederlands Strijkersgilde at Plantagekerk in Zwolle (July 24 2026), at Paleiskerk in Den Haag (July 25 2026), and at Geertekerk in Utrecht (July 26 2026), and will be performed by Kammerakademie Potsdam conducted by Joshua Weilerstein at Nikolaisaal in Potsdam, Germany (March 13 2027). Additional chamber ensemble works performed this season include Spectra, performed by the New European Ensemble at The Dutch Church in Spitalfields as part of the Spitalfields Music Festival (July 2 2026), by musicians at Akolan Kuivuri in Ii, Finland as part of the Oulunsalo Soi Chamber Music Festival (August 8 2026), by the New European Ensemble again at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh Festival (August 28 2026), and by Het Collectief at Bozar, Brussels (November 25 2026); Shades of Silence, performed at Præstø Church in Denmark as part of the Præstø Chamber Music Festival (July 4 2026); Transitions, performed by cellist Maria Isabel Edlund at Institute for X in Copenhagen (August 3 2026) and by cellist Megan Chartier with Ensemble for These Times at the Center for New Music in San Francisco (May 15 2027); Ad Genua, performed by the Norwegian Soloist Choir and members of the Arctic Philharmonic, conducted by Yuval Weinberg, at Stormen Concert Hall in Bodø, as the opening concert of the 2026 Nordland Music Festival (August 1 2026); Reflections, performed by Strings United at Lokhorstkerk in Leiden (November 13 2026) and at De Verbeelding in Zeewolde, The Netherlands (November 15 2026); Hvolf, performed by Désirée Mori and Þóra Kristín Gunnarsdóttir at Stanzerei in Baden, Switzerland (November 14 2026); Enigma, performed by Ensemble Phoenix Basel at Gare du Nord in Basel, Switzerland (December 12-13 2026); Rituals performed by the Varo String Quartet at Rosehill Cemetery’s May Chapel in Chicago, Illinois (October 27 2026); Scape, performed by pianist Kai Schumacher at Erzengel-Michael-Kirche in Köln-Rodenkirchen, Germany (October 7 2026) and by pianist Pasi Helin at Turku Music Centre Fuuga in Finland (April 18 2027); and Entropic Arrows, performed by Gageego conducted by Fredrik Burstedt at Gothenburg Concert Hall (March 14 2027).
In addition to these performances, Thorvaldsdottir’s choral works continue to be performed by choirs, professional and amateur alike, all over the world.
For Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s complete performance calendar, visit www.annathorvalds.com/performances.
All of Anna’s orchestral music and most of her other works are recorded on the Sono Luminus label, and featured on Apple Music’s Anna Thorvaldsdottir Essentials Playlist.
Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s music is frequently performed internationally and has been commissioned by many of the world’s leading orchestras, ensembles, and arts organizations, including the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Danish String Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, BBC Proms, and Carnegie Hall. Her “detailed and powerful” (The Guardian) orchestral writing has garnered her awards from the New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center, the Nordic Council, and the UK’s Ivors Academy. Anna was Composer-in-Residence with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra from 2018-2023, and was in 2023 also in residence at the Aldeburgh Festival and the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. In 2024, she received the CHANEL Next Prize. In 2024-2025, she was the Tonhalle Orchestra’s Creative Chair, and in 2025-2026, Composer-in-Residence with Helsinki Philharmonic. In 2026-2027, she is Composer-in-Residence at Bozar, Brussels, as well as with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. She holds a PhD from the University of California in San Diego, and is currently based in South East England.
The music of Anna Thorvaldsdottir is published by Chester Music, part of Wise Music Group.
For more information about Anna Thorvaldsdottir click here.
