Quick Facts
Cancer
Biography
Anna Sigríður Þorvaldsdóttir (Anna Thorvaldsdottir) (born 11 July 1977) is an Icelandic composer and 2012 winner of the Nordic Council Music Prize. In 2015, she was chosen as the New York Philharmonic'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 in April 2018.
Anna Thorvaldsdottir studied composition at the University of California, San Diego, gaining her MA and PhD. Her music is frequently performed in Europe and in the United States, and is often influenced by landscapes and nature. Anna Thorvaldsdottir is currently Composer-in-Residence with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.Her large orchestral work Aiōn, co-commissioned by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, 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.
The Iceland Symphony Orchestra has premiered and recorded four of Anna Thorvaldsdottir's orchestra pieces, conducted by Ilan Volkov, Christian Lindberg, Rumon Gamba, Daníel Bjarnason, and Bernharður Wilkinson. The Icelandic CAPUT Ensemble has also premiered and recorded major works by her, conducted by Snorri Sigfus Birgisson. Other ensembles that she has worked with include e.g. BIT20 Ensemble, Musiques Nouvelles, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Anna Thorvaldsdottir's orchestra work AERIALITY was commissioned by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and premiered in November 2011, conducted by Ilan Volkov.
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 the American label Innova Recordings.