Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir Signs with HarrisonParrott

The Icelandic composer will receive global classical representation

The Icelandic composer, cellist, and singer Hildur Guðnadóttir has recently signed with the London agency HarrisonParrott for global classical representation.

Known for experimenting with Guðnadóttir both contemporary art music and experimental pop, she has released four critically acclaimed solo albums on the Touch label: Mount A (2006), Without Sinking (2009), Leyfðu Ljósinu (2012), and Saman (2014), and these have received a number of nominations for the Icelandic Music Awards.

She has also written the scores for Joker (for which she won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe award for Best Original Score) and for the critically acclaimed HBO series Chernobyl (for which she received a Primetime EMMY award and a GRAMMY Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media).

Guðnadóttir has received commissions from the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, Icelandic National Theatre, Tate Modern, The British Film Institute, The Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, and Gothenburg National Theatre. In 2014, she was nominated for the Nordic Music Council Prize as Composer of the Year.

She is presently working on a new piece titled Where to From, which has been commissioned by a consortium of acclaimed venues and festivals such as the Barbican. The work will feature Guðnadóttir on cello and voice, and will include three other string players, two vocalists, and the visual and lighting designer Theresa Baumgartner.

"I have a fairly constant stream of music playing in my head," Guðnadóttir said of the work. "Sometimes I record this stream, a snapshot of my feeling-tone at that moment. You can capture a sense of timing with audio which you cannot with a pen. So, these recordings became a sort of diary of tonality."

"Having retreated from touring and playing concerts in the last few years, I’m very excited to be joined by an ensemble of friends to play the music of Where to From, along with songs from previous records. Strings and voices being our shared instruments, we have always had a strong resonance when we play together."