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Anna S. Þorvaldsdóttir

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anna Sigríður Þorvaldsdóttir (Anna Thorvaldsdottir) (born 11 July 1977) is an Icelandic composer. She has been called “one of Iceland’s most celebrated composers”, and was the 2012 winner of the Nordic Council Music Prize. Her music is frequently performed in Europe and in the United States, 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 the Iceland University of the Arts (BA in Composition), and later attended the University of California, San Diego, gaining her MA and PhD. Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Intercontemporain, BBC Proms, and Carnegie Hall. Portrait concerts of Anna’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 Mi

Atli Heimir Sveinsson

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Atli Heimir Sveinsson (21 September 1938 – 20 April 2019) was an Icelandic composer. Atli Heimir was born in Reykjavík, Iceland and started piano lessons at the age of 10. He studied piano with Rögnvaldur Sigurjónsson at the Reykjavík College of Music and took his diploma in 1957. He went on to study at the State Academy in Cologne, Germany, from 1959, studying composition with Günter Raphael and Rudolf Petzold, instrumentation with Bernd Alois Zimmermann, conducting with Wolfgang von der Nahmer and piano with Hermann Pillney and Hans Otto Schmidt. He also took private lessons with Gottfried Michael Koenig. He took his diploma in composition and theory in 1963, a year in which he also attended summer courses in Darmstadt, making the acquaintance of Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, György Ligeti and Bruno Maderna. In 1964 he studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Henri Pousseur, Christoph Caskel and Frederic Rzewski. In 1965 he went to the Netherlands and studied electronic music with Gottfried Michael Koenig in Bilthoven. He was president of the Icelandic Composers Association from 1972 to 1983. In 1976 he received the Nordic Council Music Prize for his Flute Concerto, which was writt

Atli Ingólfsson

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Atli Ingólfsson (born 1962) is a composer. His works have been performed in new music festivals across Europe and occasionally overseas. His oeuvre comprises a big range of different works, from solo to orchestral to music theatre. Of his chamber works, the most widely performed might be Object of Terror for chamber group (Ed. Ricordi, Milan), present on his profile CD Enter, issued by BIS in Stockholm in 2005 Early life and education He was born in Njarðvík, Iceland where he completed his studies in classical guitar, composition and philosophy before proceeding his composition studies in Italy (Milan Conservatory) and France, finally studying privately with Gérard Grisey. Career as composer After living in Italy from 1990 to 2005 he returned to Iceland where he presently teaches composition at the Iceland Academy of the Arts. In recent years, Atli has composed three music theatre works which have been staged by Cinnober Theater in Gothenburg, directed by Svante Aulis Löwenborg. These are: Suzannah (on a text by Jon Fosse), 2005, Play Alter Native (text by Finn Iunker), 2011, and Njals saga (text by Ludvig Uhlbors), 2015. “His music has been widely performed at European festivals a

Atli Örvarsson

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Atli Örvarsson (; born 7 July 1970) is an Icelandic-American BAFTA-winning and Emmy-nominated film score composer. Atli’s credits include composing and orchestrating music for some of Hollywood’s biggest projects, including the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Angels & Demons, The Holiday, The Eagle, Vantage Point, Babylon A.D., Thick as Thieves, The Fourth Kind, and Season of the Witch. Atli’s most recent credits include Apple TV’s Silo and Defending Jacob, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, A Single Shot, NBC series Chicago Fire, and together with Hans Zimmer contributed music to the Zack Snyder Superman reinstallment Man of Steel. Guan Hu, Fei Zhenxiang - 2026 Ladies First Thea Sharrock - Television References External links * * * Interview with Atli Örvarsson at FilmMusicSite

Daníel Bjarnason

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Daníel Bjarnason (born 26 February 1979) is an Icelandic composer and conductor. He has garnered widespread acclaim for his debut album, Processions (2010), with TimeOut NY writing he “create(s) a sound that comes eerily close to defining classical music’s undefinable brave new world”. Life and career Born on 26 February 1979, Daníel studied composition, piano and conducting in Reykjavik, before going on to further study orchestral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. He has had a number of works commissioned and debuted by Los Angeles Philharmonic. Daníel is currently composer-in-residence at the Muziekgebouw Frits Philips, Eindhoven, Netherlands and was artist-in-residence with Iceland Symphony Orchestra from 2015 to 2018. He has also collaborated with artists from many different genres, including Ben Frost, Sigur Rós and Brian Eno. Various conductors have also performed Daníel’s work, including Gustavo Dudamel, John Adams, André de Ridder, James Conlon, Louis Langrée and Ilan Volkov. Daníel’s recent work has included collaborations with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Rambert Dance Company, Britten Sinfonia, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, So Percussion and the Calder Q

Elias Davidsson

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Elias Davidsson (Icelandic spelling Elías Davíðsson; born Elias Kahn, 23 January 1941 - 7 April 2022) was an Icelandic composer, 9/11 truther and conspiracy theorist author. Biography Elias Davidsson was born in Palestine to German Jewish parents who had emigrated from Germany in 1931 and 1935 respectively (he later replaced his original surname with the patronym Davidsson, in accordance with Icelandic naming conventions). Davidsson grew up in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Temporarily, he lived in France until he finally moved to Iceland in 1962 and became an Icelandic citizen. He studied piano and composition in Cologne, Freiburg and Basel. He worked as a programmer for 22 years. Davidsson lived in Germany since 2008. In 2022 he lived in Kirchen (Sieg). He died on 7 April 2022 in Germany. Music While living in Iceland, Davidsson began composing avant-garde computer-assisted music. In 1976, his Piano Trio (with percussion) was performed at the Nordic Music Days in Reykjavík. This was followed by Landslög, a Fantasy based on Icelandic folk tunes. With Cheetahs, Impotent he presented a work for musical theatre. Subsequently, Elias Davidsson devoted himself increasingly to studying pieces f

Eyþór Þorláksson

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Eyþór Þorláksson (22 March 1930 – 14 December 2018) was an Icelandic guitarist and composer. Life and work Eyþór was born at Krosseyrarvegur in Hafnarfjörður. His parents where María Jakobsdóttir, from Aðalvík and Þorlákur Guðlaugsson from Biskupstungur. In the years 1950–1952 he studied guitar in England, Denmark and Sweden and in 1953 in Madrid with Daniel Fortea and Quintin Esquembre. In the years 1954–1957 he studied harmony and counterpoint with Victor Urbancic and in 1958–1961 he completed his guitar studies with Graciano Tarragó in Barcelona. Since then he has been the principal guitar teacher at the music school in Hafnarfjordur and has arranged and written a lot of tutorial material for the classical guitar. In his retirement he continued to arrange and compose for the guitar. Eyþór was singer Elly Vilhjálms’ first husband. Musical works Guitar Methods 1037 The first guitar lessons. Method for beginners with accompaniment. (Icelandic text). 1038 Guitar Method I. 1. grade. 1032 Guitar Method II. 2. grade. Collections 1004 Guitar Tunes. Folk songs from all over, easy arrangements for the beginner. 76 tunes. (Icelandic text). 1005 Guitar Moment I. Collection and arrangements

Hafdís Bjarnadóttir

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Hafdís Bjarnadóttir (born 1977) is an Icelandic composer and electric guitarist who gained prominence in 2013 when she was inspired by a knitting pattern for a lace shawl to compose “Thordis’ Fichu”. She received wide acclaim in 2015 for her “Sounds of Iceland”, a journey through Iceland made up of a series of field recordings of the natural sounds of waterfalls, birds, lakes, the sea and geysers. Biography Born in Reykjavík on 17 August 1977, Hafdís Bjarnadóttir has played the electric guitar since she was 12, initially concentrating on rock and folk music. She qualified in jazz guitar playing at the Icelandic school of music, Tónlistarskóli FÍH, in 2002. In 2007, she earned a bachelor’s degree at the Iceland Academy of the Arts before completing a master’s degree at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 2009. Hafdís’ music has drawn on a combination of jazz, rock and folk, as well as classical and modern music. She often composes items involving surprisingly different instruments. “Thordis’ Fichu” and “Sounds of Iceland” followed in 2013 and 2015. Hafdís Bjarnadóttir composed “A Northern Year” for Passepartout Duo in 2019, a piece that chronicles the sun’s position over Reykjavík

Haraldur Vignir Sveinbjörnsson

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Haraldur Vignir Sveinbjörnsson (born 1975) is an Icelandic composer and arranger. Education He studied piano with Árni Harðarson at the Kopavogur Music School where he graduated in 1997. He finished his BA degree in composition at Reykjavik Music College 2001 with Hilmar Þórðarson, and MMus degree in composition at Lund University (Malmö Music University) where he studied with Kent Olofsson and Prof. Luca Francesconi. Haraldur also studied recording technique and Electroacoustic music through various courses in Iceland and Sweden. Compositions His orchestra piece, Seven Songs of the Insomniac (), won the Morgondagens tonsättare () prize in Helsingborg, Sweden 2003. A year later, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra premiered two pieces by Haraldur, 7 Songs of the Insomniac in February, and Hraun in May. 7 Songs of the Insomniac was also nominated as best contemporary music at the Icelandic Music Awards 2005. Other notable pieces include Memento Mei (2005) for mixed choir Piece & Harmony (2001) for string orchestra Duel (2003) for solo contrabass and electronics Dawn (2007) for percussion duo Hodie (2009) for women’s choir Forget-me-not (2016) for flute, violin and piano Painting (2016) f

Hildur Guðnadóttir

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Hildur Ingveldardóttir Guðnadóttir (born 4 September 1982) is an Icelandic musician and composer. A classically trained cellist, she has played and recorded with the bands Pan Sonic, Throbbing Gristle, Múm, and Stórsveit Nix Noltes, and has toured with Animal Collective and Sunn O))). She has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, two Grammy Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Hildur has gained international recognition for her film and television scores, including Journey’s End (2017), Mary Magdalene (2018), Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018), Todd Field’s Tár and Sarah Polley’s Women Talking (both 2022). Her score for Todd Phillips’ Joker (2019), won the Academy Award for Best Original Score, the BAFTA Award for Best Original Music, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, making Hildur the first solo female composer to win in all three. She is also known for her work on the HBO miniseries Chernobyl (2019), which won her a Primetime Emmy Award, a BAFTA TV Award and a Grammy Award. Early life Hildur was born in 1982 in Reykjavík, Iceland, and was raised in Hafnarfjörður. She comes from a family of musicians — her father, Guðni Franzson, is a composer, c

Jóhann Jóhannsson

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Jóhann Gunnar Jóhannsson (; 19 September 1969 – 9 February 2018) was an Icelandic composer who wrote music for a wide array of media including theatre, dance, television, and film. His work is stylised by its blending of traditional orchestration with contemporary electronic elements. Jóhann released solo albums from 2002 onward. In 2016, he signed with Deutsche Grammophon, through which he released his last solo album, Orphée. Some of his works in film include the original scores for Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, Sicario, and Arrival, and James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything. Jóhannsson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score for both The Theory of Everything and Sicario, and won a Golden Globe for Best Original Score for the former. He earned a second Golden Globe nomination for Arrival. He was a music and sound consultant on Mother!, directed by Darren Aronofsky in 2017. His scores for Mary Magdalene and Mandy were released posthumously. His only directorial work, Last and First Men, premiered at the Manchester International Festival in 2017, where he also performed the score live with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Early life and career Jóhann was born on

Jón Leifs

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Jón Leifs (; born Jón Þorleifsson; 1 May 1899 – 30 July 1968) was an Icelandic composer, pianist, and conductor. Life Jón Leifs was born Jón Þorleifsson, at the farm Sólheimar, then in the Húnavatnssýsla, northwestern Iceland. He left for Germany in 1916 to study at the Leipzig Conservatory. He graduated in 1921 having studied piano with Robert Teichmüller, but decided not to embark on a career as a pianist, devoting his time instead to conducting and composing. During this period he also encountered the legendary pianist-composer Ferruccio Busoni, who urged him to “follow his own path in composition”. In the 1920s Jón Leifs conducted a number of symphony orchestras in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Norway and Denmark, thus becoming the only internationally successful Icelandic conductor to date, including Requiem Op. 33b for mixed choir, perhaps his most celebrated piece. The other works are Torrek Op. 33a, for solo voice and piano, Erfiljóð (In memoriam) Op. 35 for male choir, and the string quartet Vita et mors Op. 36. Jón Leifs composed his last work, Consolation, Intermezzo for string orchestra, as he had only weeks to live. He died of lung cancer in Reykjavík in 1968. Jón Leifs and

Jón Nordal

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Jón Nordal (6 March 1926 – 5 December 2024) was an Icelandic composer and pianist. He was considered one of the leading Icelandic composers of his generation, and his orchestral and choral works have been widely performed. Career Nordal was born in Reykjavík, the son of the prominent Icelandic philologist and author Sigurður Nordal and his wife Ólöf Jónsdóttir. He began music studies at a young age, and eventually began studying composition at the Reykjavík College of Music with Victor Urbancic and later with Jón Þórarinsson. He completed his studies there in 1949, with a Concerto for Orchestra that was premiered by the newly-established Iceland Symphony Orchestra in 1950. He continued his studies in Zurich (1949–1951), where he studied with Willy Burkhard (composition) and Walter Frey (piano). He lived for a while in Copenhagen, where his father was the Icelandic ambassador at the time, but returned to Iceland in 1957. In 1959, he became the Dean of the Reykjavík College of Music, a position he held until 1992. In his earlier years, Nordal appeared frequently as piano soloist, giving solo recitals and performing with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Among his early key works is a S

Jón Þórarinsson

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jón Þórarinsson (13 September 1917 – 12 February 2012) was an Icelandic composer, teacher, and administrator. He was a leading personality in Icelandic culture in the 20th century, particularly in his positions for the Icelandic National Radio and Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Career Jón Þórarinsson was born in Gilsárteigur, Suður-Múlasýsla in eastern Iceland. He studied at Akureyri Junior College, graduating in 1937. His earliest surviving songs were written during this time, when he studied with the local choir conductor and composer Björgvin Guðmundsson. He moved to Reykjavík in 1937, studying composition and music theory with Franz Mixa and Victor Urbancic at the Reykjavík College of Music. At the same time, he began working at the music division of the National Radio. Jón Þórarinsson received many honors and awards for his compositional and administrative work. He was made a Commander of the Order of the Falcon in 1978, and a Grand Commander (stórriddarakross) in 1989 by the President of Iceland, for his contribution to Icelandic musical culture. He was the author of several books, including a biography of Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson (1969) and a history of Icelandic music (Íslens

Jórunn Viðar

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Jórunn Viðar (7 December 1918 – 27 February 2017) was an Icelandic pianist and composer. She was the first classically trained female composer in Iceland and her music is frequently inspired by Icelandic folk songs and folklore. Biography Jórunn Viðar was born and grew up in Reykjavík, Iceland. In 1937 she graduated from Reykjavík Grammar School, and the same year travelled to Germany to study piano for two years at the Music Academy in Berlin. She returned to Iceland and married Lárus Fjeldsted (1918–1985), and began to study composition with Victor Urbancic, an Austrian musician who was living in exile in Reykjavík. In 1943, Jórunn’s husband was diagnosed with acute lymphoma and was treated with radiation at a hospital in Baltimore. Once he had recovered, Jórunn joined him in New York City where they lived until December 1945. There, she studied composition with Vittorio Giannini at the Juilliard School of Music and took private piano lessons with the Polish pianist and pedagogue Helena Morsztyn. In 1943–1945 Jórunn worked on an opera in collaboration with her younger sister, the writer and artist Drífa Viðar. Titled Snær konungur (King Snow), it drew on old Icelandic mythology a

Karólína Eiríksdóttir

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Karólína Eiríksdóttir (born 10 January 1951) is an Icelandic composer. Biography Karólína was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, and studied piano as a child. She later studied composition at the Reykjavik College of Music with Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson and at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with George Wilson, Leslie Bassett and William Albright. She graduated with a master’s degrees in music history and research (1976) and in composition (1978), and took a teaching position at the College of Music in Reykjavík. Karólína’s works have been performed in France, England, Vienna, Tokyo, the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Argentina. She served as chairman of the board of The Iceland Music Information Centre and of The Society of Icelandic Composers, and was active on the boards of the Reykjavík Arts Festival and Iceland Academy of the Arts. Works Karólína composes for orchestra, solo instruments, chamber ensembles, computer music and opera. Selected works include: *Någon har jag sett, opera (text: Marie Louise Ramnefalk) *Man Alive, opera (text: Árni Ibsen) *Magnus Maria, chamber opera (text: Katarina Gäddnäs) *Skuggaleikur, opera (text: Sjón) *Three Paragraphs for orches

Lárus Halldór Grímsson

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Lárus Halldór Grímsson (born December 13, 1954) is an Icelandic composer and musician. He is known mostly for his electronic compositions with traditional instruments but he has been writing more non-electronic works since 1990. He has composed much of his music for theatre and television. Lárus began studying the flute in the Skólahljómsveit Vesturbæjar children’s wind band and music school in Western Reykjavík (now Skólahljómsveit Vesturbæjar og Miðbæjar) when he was ten. He attended the Reykjavík College of Music from 1972 to 1977. There he concentrated mostly on the flute, but also learned to play keyboards. He played on both instruments with several bands in the 1970s, the most famous being Eik, one of the first Icelandic bands to write all their own songs. In 1979 he began studies at the Institute of Sonology (Instituut voor Sonologie) in Utrecht, in the Netherlands. After finishing his studies there in 1984, he worked at the institute for some time. Lárus’ compositions include many works for theatre and television, including the play Næturgalann, which has been performed at most primary schools in Iceland, He has been director and conductor of the Skólahljómsveit Vesturbæjar

Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson

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Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson (8 September 1925 - 1 January 2005) was an Icelandic composer, pianist and conductor. Jóhannsson studied with Franz Mixa and Victor Urbancic at the Reykjavík College of Music (1935–7, 1939–45) and with Bernard Wagenaar and Marion Bauer at the Juilliard School (1947–53). He was active as répétiteur and conductor at the Icelandic National Theater (1956–61), His Fjórar abstraksjónir (‘‘Four Abstractions’’, 1950) for piano was the first Icelandic 12-note composition; composing his Elektrónísk stúdía (Electronic Study) for woodwind quintet, piano and tape in 1958. Working with very limited resources at the Icelandic National Radio, he composed the tape work Constellation in 1961, a key work in his output. The critical reception of his work during the 1960s, including the modernist orchestral work Punktar (1962) and Sonorities I for piano (1963) was negative and quite harsh. Yet Jóhannsson also had a lyrical vein, as is best exemplified in the vocalise Sveitin milli sanda, originally composed for a documentary film in 1962 and by far his most popular work. In 1971 Jóhannsson stopped composing for almost a decade; this extended silence was eventually broken with

Páll Ísólfsson

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Páll Ísólfsson (12 October 1893 – 23 November 1974) was an Icelandic organist, composer, pianist, conductor, and school director. He was one of the first Icelanders to study music abroad and is seen as one of the most influential Icelandic musicians in the first half of the twentieth century. Through his work as performer, composer, conductor, and the first director of the Reykjavík School of Music, he played a large part in creating a culture of Western classical music in Iceland. Life and career Páll Ísólfsson was born in Stokkseyri in southern Iceland on 12 October 1893, the son of the composer, organist, and inventor Ísólfur Pálsson and his wife Þuríður Bjarnadóttir. Ísólfsson left the small town for Reykjavík at age 15, living with his uncle, Jón Pálsson, and his wife, Anna S. Adólfsdóttir. Although Ísólfsson had initially intended to study printing, his uncle decided to pay for his organ studies in Germany, and thus Ísólfsson left for Leipzig in autumn 1913. There, he studied at the Leipzig Conservatory with the renowned organist Karl Straube, making excellent progress, and often substituting for his teacher at the St. Thomas Church. It was during a break from his studies, wh

Sigfús Einarsson

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Sigfús Einarsson (30 January 1877 – 10 May 1939) was an Icelandic composer, organist, and music critic. He was a pioneer in Icelandic music in the early twentieth century and is particularly well known for his songs, many of which remain highly popular. Career Sigfús Einarsson was born at Skúmsstaðir in Eyrarbakki in Southern Iceland. The son of a merchant, he was raised in a musical household and at age 12 was already a member of the Báran choir, one of Iceland’s earliest mixed choirs. At age 15, he went to Reykjavík to study at the local Latin School (Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík), where he also founded and established a student choir. He went to Copenhagen to study law, but quit his studies to focus on music, which would be his main profession in life. In Copenhagen, he studied composition and music theory with August Enna, and met his future wife, the Danish singer and pianist Valborg Hellemann (later Valborg Einarsson). Sigfús and his wife moved back to Iceland in 1906 and would become instrumental in Reykjavík’s growing musical life for the next decades. He taught singing in several schools, and in 1911 he established the choral society Söngfélagið 17. júní, which he conducted f

Sigvaldi Kaldalóns

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Sigvaldi Kaldalóns (Stefánsson) (13 January 1881 – 28 July 1946) * * * * * * * *

Thor Baldursson

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Thor Baldursson (born Þórir Baldursson in 1944) is an Icelandic composer, organist, arranger and producer. He is best known for his work with Giorgio Moroder, and records with Donna Summer, Grace Jones and Elton John. The 1978 Disco-funk track Sing Sing by his band Gaz became a sought after sample, its rhythm appearing on a number of hits to this day, giving Baldursson songwriting credits on tracks by Drake (Wu-Tang Forever), Dua Lipa, Kylie Minogue and more. That sample is the foundation block of the Baltimore Club genre of music. Baldursson grew up in Keflavík, close to the US military base that ran the international airport. The American radio broadcasts from the base were a heavy influence on him. His first successes were locally, with his band Savanna Tríó, who released a number of folk records between 1962 and 1967. He moved to Sweden in 1970, and to Germany in 1972. While in Germany he started working with Giorgio Moroder and Pete Belotte, as their arranger, as well as some production and instrumentation. He also conducted the Salsoul Orchestra. References

Victor Urbancic

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Dr. Victor Urbancic or Viktor Ernest Johann von Urbantschitsch (9 August 1903 – 4 April 1958) was an Austrian composer, conductor, teacher and music scholar from Vienna. During his twenty-year exile in Iceland, from 1938 until his death, he made significant contributions to Iceland’s musical culture. Biography Urbancic was born in Vienna and began his musical studies there, studying piano, and later composition with Joseph Marx and conducting with Clemens Krauss and others at the Vienna Conservatory of Music. He also completed a doctorate in musicology at the University of Vienna under Guido Adler, with a dissertation on sonata form in the works of Johannes Brahms. His early career was spent at the Stadttheater Mainz, and he had already obtained a position at the Conservatory there, which was led by his old friend and colleague Hans Gál, when the Nazis took power in 1933 and he was forced to leave Germany. Although Urbancic was born and raised in the Catholic faith, his wife, Melitta, came from a Jewish family. He eventually found a new job at the Graz Conservatory, where he was teacher and director of the opera studio, as well as lecturing in musicology at the University of Graz.

Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson

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Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson (or Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson) (16 July 1938 – 30 January 2013) was an Icelandic composer, conductor and pianist. The most prolific Icelandic composer, he is author of more than 350 works, from songs for children to orchestral works. Early life and study Born in Reykjavík, the son of bishop Sigurbjörn Einarsson and his wife, Magnea Þorkelsdóttir, he graduated from Reykjavík High School in 1957. He then moved to the United States to study at Hamline University in Minnesota, ultimately graduating in 1961 from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Among his teachers there were Lejaren Hiller and Kenneth Gaburo. He returned to Iceland in 1962, and hosted a regular radio show on RÚV for many years. Career Þorkell taught piano, musicology, and music history at the Reykjavík College of Music for many years. He was also chair of the Icelandic Composers’ Society from 1983 to 1987, sat for a time on the board of the Association of Icelandic Musicians and was president of the Association of Icelandic Artists from 1982 to 1986. He died in Kópavogur. He is best known for composing music (in 1973) for the 13th-century Icelandic hymn, Heyr, himna smiður. While Þorke

Þuríður Jónsdóttir

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Þuríður Jónsdóttir (born 30 March 1967) is an Icelandic composer and flautist. As a composer, she is known for her inventive combinations of live instruments and electronics, and as a flautist she is a member of the Viibra flute septet. Career Þuríður studied flute at the Reykjavík College of Music, and in 1989 moved to Italy to continue her education. She studied composition and electronics at the Bologna Conservatory under Christina Landuzzi, Adriano Guarnieri and Charles Camilleri. She attended a course with Franco Donatoni in 1992, and in 1995–1996 she took lessons in composition with Alessandro Solbiati in Novara. She later moved back to Iceland, where she now lives. Her works have been performed at festivals in Iceland and Europe, including Présences in Paris, Musica Nova in Copenhagen, ISCM in Salzburg. and Musica sui più dimensioni in Palermo, She has been commissioned to write works for Radio France, the Caput Ensemble and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and has composed for renowned soloists such as flautist Mario Caroli (Flutter) and accordionist Geir Draugsvoll (Installation Around a Heart). Þuríður has received particular praise for her combination of live instruments