Anna Sigríður Þorvaldsdóttir (Anna Thorvaldsdottir) (born 11 July 1977) is "one of

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

's most celebrated composers" and 2012 winner of the Nordic Council Music Prize. Her music is frequently performed in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

and in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, and is often influenced by landscapes and nature.

Early life and education

Anna Thorvaldsdottir trained as a cellist in her youth, and began composing at a young age. She studied composition at Iceland Academy of the Arts (BA in Composition), and later attended the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

, gaining her MA and PhD.

Career

Anna Thorvaldsdottir has been commissioned by

Berliner Philharmoniker The Berlin Philharmonic (german: Berliner Philharmoniker, links=no, italic=no) is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world. History The Berlin Philharmonic was fo ...

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...

,Michael Cooper, "Philharmonic Chooses Anna Thorvaldsdottir for Emerging Composer Program," New York Times, June 5, 2015
url
Los Angeles Philharmonic,

Orchestre de Paris The Orchestre de Paris () is a French orchestra based in Paris. The orchestra currently performs most of its concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris. History In 1967, following the dissolution of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du ...

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. It is the resident orchestra at Symphony Hall: a B:Music Venue in Birmingham, which has been its principal performance venue since 1991. Its a ...

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (GSO; sv, Göteborgs Symfoniker) is a Swedish symphony orchestra based in Gothenburg. The GSO is resident at the Gothenburg Concert Hall at Götaplatsen. The orchestra received the title of the National Orc ...

Munich Philharmonic The Munich Philharmonic (german: Münchner Philharmoniker, links=no) is a German symphony orchestra located in the city of Munich. It is one of Munich's four principal orchestras, along with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Ra ...

International Contemporary Ensemble The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is a contemporary classical music ensemble, based in New York City and Chicago. ICE performs a diverse and extensive array of chamber, electro-acoustic, improvisatory, and multimedia works. History T ...

Ensemble Intercontemporain The Ensemble intercontemporain (EIC) is a French music ensemble, based in Paris, that is dedicated to contemporary music. Pierre Boulez founded the EIC in 1976 for this purpose, the first permanent organization of its type in the world. Organi ...

BBC Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

, and Carnegie Hall among others. Portrait concerts of Thorvaldsdottir's work have been presented at many major venues and music festivals, including: Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Knoxville’s

Big Ears Festival The Big Ears Festival is an annual music festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, created and produced by AC Entertainment. History The festival was founded in 2009 by Ashley Capps, founder of AC Entertainment. The festival was originally organized b ...

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...

’s Mostly Mozart Festival in NYC, Münchener Kammerorchester’s Nachtmusic der Moderne series, National Sawdust, the Composer Portraits Series at NYC’s Miller Theatre, the Leading International Composers series at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC,

’s Point Festival, and

Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadi ...

. As an educator, she has given lectures and presentations at Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Northwestern, University of Chicago, Sibelius Academy, and the Royal Academy of Music in London. Thorvaldsdottir is currently composer-in-residence with the

Iceland Symphony Orchestra Sinfóníuhljómsveit Íslands (Iceland Symphony Orchestra) (ISO) is an Icelandic orchestra based in Reykjavík, Iceland. Its primary concert venue is the Harpa Concert Hall. The Iceland Symphony is an autonomous public institution under the aus ...

. She is based in Surrey, UK, near London.

Major Orchestral Works

''Dreaming''

''Dreaming'', for which Thorvaldsdottir received the 2012 Nordic Council Music Prize (see below), was premiered by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Bernharður Wilkinson on Jan 14 2010. The UK premiere was given by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Rumon Gamba on Jan 11 2019.

''AERIALITY''

''AERIALITY'' was an important work for catapulting Thorvaldsdottir's orchestral writing into the interest of American orchestras. It was commissioned by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and premiered in November 2011. It was selected as a top 10 recording in 2014 by

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

's Alex Ross, and by

John Schaefer John Schaefer is an American radio host and author. A longtime host at WNYC, Schaefer began hosting the influential radio shows ''New Sounds'' in 1982 and ''Soundcheck'' in 2002, and has produced many different programs for other New York Public ...

for WNYC's ''New Sounds Year in Review''.

''METACOSMOS''

The New York Philharmonic's Kravis Emerging Composer Award (see below), and the associated commission of ''METACOSMOS'', premiered on April 4, 2018 under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall, cemented Thorvaldsdottir's status as “one of the most unique and expressive voices in the compositional scene today.” The European premiere was given by the Berliner Philharmoniker and Alan Gilbert.

''AION''

'' Aiōn'', co-commissioned by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the

, was given its world premiere on May 24, 2019, at the Point Music Festival in the Gothenburg Concert Hall, Gothenburg, by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anna-Maria Helsing. It received its US premiere at Spoleto Festival USA in 2022, conducted by John Kennedy.

''CATAMORPHOSIS''

''CATAMORPHOSIS'' was premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko on Jan 29 2021. The work was a Berlin Philharmonic commission (co-commissioned by New York Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and Iceland Symphony Orchestra). ''CATAMORPHOSIS'' also received the UK's Ivors Composer Award for Large Scale Composition in 2021 (see below for other Awards and Honours). The UK premiere of ''CATAMORPHOSIS'' was given by the CBSO and Ludovic Morlot.

''ARCHORA''

''ARCHORA'' was commissioned by the BBC Proms (co-commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Klangspuren Schwaz, and Iceland Symphony Orchestra). The work was premiered by the BBC Philharmonic and Eva Ollikainen on August 11 2022 at Royal Albert Hall.

Awards and Honours

* ''CATAMORPHOSIS'' received the UK's Ivors Composer Award for Large Scale Composition in 2021. * Thorvaldsdottir received the Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award and Martin E. Segal Award, 2018. * In 2015, she was chosen as the

's Kravis Emerging Composer, an honor that includes a $50,000 cash prize and a commission to write a composition for the orchestra; she is the second recipient. The orchestra later performed the premiere of her symphonic poem '' Metacosmos'' under the conductor

Esa-Pekka Salonen Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and music di ...

in April 2018. * Anna Thorvaldsdottir was awarded the 2012 Nordic Council Music Prize for her orchestral work ''Dreaming'', one of the pieces on her album ''Rhízōma'' which was released on 25 October 2011 on

Innova Recordings Innova Recordings is the independent record label of the non-profit American Composers Forum based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded in 1982 to document the winners of the McKnight Fellowship offered by its parent organization, the Minnesot ...

Selected works

Orchestral

* ''ARCHORA'' (2022) * ''CATAMORPHOSIS'' (2020) * ''AION'' (2018) * ''METACOSMOS'' (2017) * ''AERIALITY'' (2011) * ''Dreaming'' (2008)

Chamber

* ''Enigma'' (2019), for string quartet * ''Spectra'' (2017), for violin, viola, and cello * ''Illumine'' (2016), for string octet * ''Aequilibria'' (2014), for large ensemble * ''In the Light of Air'' (2014), for percussion, harp, piano, viola, cello, harp, and electronics * ''Ró'' (2013), for bass flute, bass clarinet, percussion, piano, two violins, viola, cello * ''aura'' (2011), for percussion trio * ''Hrím'' (2010), for large ensemble

Choral

* ''Ad Genua'' (2016), for choir and string quintet * ''Heyr þú oss himnum á'' (2005) * ''Hey mig mín sál'' (2003)

Selected Recordings

* ''Aerial'' (Sono Luminus, 2022) riginally released on Deutsche Grammophon in 2014* ''ENIGMA'' (Sono Luminus, 2021) * ''Rhizoma'' (Sono Luminus, 2020) riginally released on Innova in 2011* ''AEQUA'' (Sono Luminus, 2018) * ''In the Light of Air'' (Sono Luminus, 2015)

References

External links

Anna Þorvaldsdóttir's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorvaldsdottir, Anna 1977 births

Anna Thorvaldsdottir Anna may refer to: People Surname and given name * Anna (name) Mononym * Anna the Prophetess, in the Gospel of Luke * Anna (wife of Artabasdos) (fl. 715–773) * Anna (daughter of Boris I) (9th–10th century) * Anna (Anisia) (fl. 1218 to 122 ...

Living people

21st-century women musicians