Anna S. Þorvaldsdóttir Explained

Anna Thorvaldsdottir
Native Name:Anna Sigríður Þorvaldsdóttir
Native Name Lang:Icelandic
Birth Date: July 11, 1977
Birth Place:Iceland
Occupation:Composer
Associated Acts:Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Anna Sigríður Þorvaldsdóttir (Anna Thorvaldsdottir) (born 11 July 1977) is an Icelandic composer. She has been called "one of Iceland's most celebrated composers",[1] and was the 2012 winner of the Nordic Council Music Prize.[2] Her music is frequently performed in Europe[3] and in the United States,[4] and is often influenced by landscapes and nature.[5]

Early life and education

Anna Thorvaldsdottir trained as a cellist in her youth, and began composing at a young age.[6] She studied composition at Iceland Academy of the Arts (BA in Composition), and later attended the University of California, San Diego, gaining her MA and PhD.

Career

Anna Thorvaldsdottir has been commissioned by Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic,[7] Los Angeles Philharmonic,[8] Orchestre de Paris, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Intercontemporain,[9] BBC Proms,[10] 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, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival in NYC, Münchener Kammerorchester’s Nachtmusic der Moderne series, National Sawdust, the Composer Portraits Series at NYC’s Miller Theatre,[11] the Leading International Composers series at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra’s Point Festival, and Wigmore Hall.

As an educator, she has given lectures and presentations at Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Northwestern,[12] University of Chicago, Sibelius Academy, and the Royal Academy of Music in London.[13]

Thorvaldsdottir is currently composer-in-residence with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.[14] She is based in Surrey, UK, near London.

Major orchestral works

Dreaming (2008), for which Thorvaldsdottir received the 2012 Nordic Council Music Prize, was premiered by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Bernharður Wilkinson on 14 January 2010. The UK premiere was given by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Rumon Gamba on 11 January 2019.

AERIALITY (2011) 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 Yorkers Alex Ross,[15] and by John Schaefer for WNYC's New Sounds Year in Review.[16]

The New York Philharmonic's Kravis Emerging Composer Award,[17] and the associated commission of METACOSMOS (2017), premiered on 4 April 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.”[18] The European premiere was given by the Berliner Philharmoniker under Alan Gilbert.

AIŌN (2018), co-commissioned by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, was given its world premiere on 24 May 2019, at the Point Music Festival[19] in the Gothenburg Concert Hall, Gothenburg, by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anna-Maria Helsing.[20] It received its US premiere at Spoleto Festival USA in 2022, conducted by John Kennedy.[21]

CATAMORPHOSIS (2020) was premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko on 29 January 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. The UK premiere was given by the CBSO and Ludovic Morlot.[22]

ARCHORA (2022) 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 under Eva Ollikainen on 11 August 2022 at Royal Albert Hall.[23]

Awards and honours

Selected works

Orchestral

Chamber

Choral

Selected recordings

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Anna Þorvaldsdóttir: Dreaming . 2022-08-15 . Iceland Symphony Orchestra . en.
  2. Web site: Morgunblaðið, 11.07.2017, "Tónskáld sem skynjar heiminn sem tónlist" (Icelandic) . 2018-01-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180128190532/http://arc.ci.x-cago.net/data/mbl/20170711/pages/01026/articles/MBL-20170711-01026005.pdf . 2018-01-28 . dead .
  3. Web site: Philharmoniker . Berliner . “Composing is my life“ Berliner Philharmoniker . 2022-08-15 . www.berliner-philharmoniker.de . en.
  4. Web site: San Francisco Symphony - METACOSMOS . 2022-08-15 . San Francisco Symphony . en-us.
  5. Lanzilotti . Anne . May 18, 2017 . Anna Thorvaldsdottir: A Part of Nature . Music & Literature.
  6. Web site: Meet The Composer: Anna Thorvaldsdottir Specials . 2022-08-15 . WNYC . en.
  7. Michael Cooper, "Philharmonic Chooses Anna Thorvaldsdottir for Emerging Composer Program," New York Times, June 5, 2015 (url)
  8. Web site: Anna Thorvaldsdóttir . 2022-08-15 . LA Phil . en.
  9. Web site: 2020-01-09 . Anna Thorvaldsdottir : nature, textures, structures. . 2022-08-15 . Ensemble intercontemporain . en-US.
  10. Web site: 2022-08-12 . Prom 34: BBCPhil/Ollikainen review – Thorvaldsdottir’s study in sonority is impressive and engaging . 2022-08-15 . the Guardian . en.
  11. Web site: New York Classical Review . 2022-08-15 . newyorkclassicalreview.com . en-US.
  12. Web site: Bienen School hosts fourth biennial new music conference virtually on April 24 . 2022-08-15 . news.northwestern.edu . en.
  13. Web site: Royal Academy of Music at the 2019 BBC Proms . 2022-08-15 . Royal Academy of Music . en-GB.
  14. Web site: Anna Thorvaldsdottir named new Composer-in-Residence. Iceland Symphony Orchestra. en. 2018-02-03.
  15. Web site: Ross . Alex . Ten Notable Performances and Recordings of 2014 . The New Yorker.
  16. Web site: New Sounds Year in Review 2014: 4 New Sounds . 2022-08-15 . WNYC . en.
  17. Web site: Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Tales of Intuition and Inspiration . 2022-08-17 . National Sawdust Log . en-US.
  18. Web site: Just Announced: Anna Thorvaldsdottir Named Kravis Emerging Composer What's New: Latest News and Stories About The New York Philharmonic . 2022-08-17 . nyphil.org.
  19. Web site: theartsdesk in Gothenburg: concert-hall storytelling rivets at the Point Music Festival reviews, news & interviews The Arts Desk . 2022-08-15 . theartsdesk.com.
  20. Web site: Nice . David . May 30, 2019 . TheArtsDesk in Gothenburg: Concert-hall storytelling rivets at the Point Music Festival . September 20, 2019 . The Arts Desk.
  21. Web site: Rhapsodic Overture Spoleto Festival USA 2022 . 2022-08-17 . spoletousa.org . en-US.
  22. Web site: 2022-06-16 . CBSO/Morlot review – remarkable Thorvaldsdottir and phenomenal Kopatchinskaja . 2022-08-15 . the Guardian . en.
  23. Web site: Anna Thorvaldsdottir discusses ARCHORA - her latest orchestral work . 2022-08-15 . www.wisemusicclassical.com . en.
  24. Web site: Brown . Anna . 2021-12-08 . The Ivors Composer Awards 2021 winners announced . 2022-08-15 . The Ivors Academy . en-GB.
  25. Web site: Colloquium: Anna Thorvaldsdottir Music Department . 2022-08-15 . music.uchicago.edu.
  26. Web site: Barone . Joshua . April 4, 2018 . The New York Philharmonic Channels the Chaos of the Cosmos . April 5, 2018 . The New York Times.
  27. Web site: Tommasini . Anthony . Anthony Tommasini . April 5, 2018 . Review: An Orchestral Odyssey Through Chaos and Beauty . April 5, 2018 . The New York Times.
  28. Web site: Philharmoniker . Berliner . “Composing is my life“ Berliner Philharmoniker . 2022-08-15 . www.berliner-philharmoniker.de . en.
  29. Web site: AIŌN . 2022-08-15 . Göteborgs Symfoniker . en-US.
  30. News: Barone . Joshua . 2018-04-04 . The New York Philharmonic Channels the Chaos of the Cosmos . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-08-15 . 0362-4331.
  31. Web site: Anna Þorvaldsdóttir: Dreaming . 2022-08-15 . Iceland Symphony Orchestra . en.
  32. News: Huizenga . Tom . 2021-12-08 . The Top 10 Classical Albums of 2021 . en . NPR . 2022-08-15.
  33. News: 2021-12-15 . The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2021 . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-08-15 . 0362-4331.
  34. Web site: Contemporary composer: Anna Thorvaldsdóttir . 2022-08-15 . Gramophone . en.
  35. Web site: AERIAL Anna Thorvaldsdottir . 2022-08-17 . www.deutschegrammophon.com . en.
  36. Web site: 2019-06-20 . An Ocean Of Sound: Anna Þorvaldsdóttir Evokes The Vastness Of Nature . 2022-08-15 . The Reykjavik Grapevine . en-US.
  37. Web site: 10 Imagination-Grabbing, Trailblazing Artists of 2014 Q2 Music . 2022-08-17 . WQXR . en.
  38. News: Tommasini . Anthony . Barone . Joshua . Fonseca-Wollheim . Corinna da . Allen . David . Walls . Seth Colter . Woolfe . Zachary . 2018-12-13 . The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2018 . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-08-15 . 0362-4331.
  39. News: Kozinn . Allan . 2018-12-18 . ‘Aequa’ by the International Contemporary Ensemble, ‘He(a)r’ by Nordic Affect and ‘Collider’ by Daníel Bjarnason Reviews . en-US . Wall Street Journal . 2022-08-15 . 0099-9660.
  40. News: Huizenga . Tom . 2018-12-18 . NPR Music's Best Classical Albums Of 2018 . en . NPR . 2022-08-15.

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