Event info

Icelandic Orchestral Works at Airwaves – Iceland Symphony
2. Nov » 20:00 Eldborg | Harpa

CONDUCTOR
Anna-Maria Helsing

PROGRAM
Anna Þorvaldsdóttir Dreaming
Hildur Guðnadóttir Under Takes Over
María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir Aequora
Þuríður Jónsdóttir Flow and Fusion

The Iceland Symphony Orchestra's Airwaves concert features orchestral works by four Icelandic composers who have drawn extensive praise in the past few years for their colorful, atmospheric, genre-bending music.

María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir is well known for her work with the ensemble Amiina, and has collaborated extensively with Sigur Rós. Her richly atmospheric orchestral work Aequora, recently performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was nominated for the Icelandic Music Award as Composition of the Year.

Hildur Guðnadóttir has received high praise for her music, particularly for her recent work in film and television, including Hulu's series The Handmaid's Tale. The work performed here, Under Takes Over, is an unconventional study of the subconscious and is formed through constantly changing patches of light controlled by the conductor.

Anna Þorvaldsdóttir is among Iceland's most renowned contemporary composers and has worked with ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, where she holds the position of Kravis Emerging Composer. She won the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2012 for her orchestral work Dreaming, and both Þuríður Jónsdóttir and Hildur Guðnadóttir were nominated for the same prize for the works on this programme. The adjudication panel for the Nordic Prize said this about her work, Dreaming: “The tones are carefully depicted – almost like small pieces of embroidery. The work grows on you with every listening, and it makes you curious for more.”

Þuríður Jónsdóttir's Flow and Fusion is a captivating merger of electronic and orchestral sounds that the composer says reflected “different streams of hot, flowing magma that fuse together in a single semi-liquid mass of churning lava.”