Anna has in recent years been very prominent among young Icelandic composers. Her music is frequently performed all over Europe and in the US by leading performers. Her pieces have been performed at music festivals such as Nordic Music Days, Prague Premieres, Festival Nordischer Klang, Skálholt Summer Concerts, Young Nordic Music and Dark Music Days, to name a few. The piece Six minutes was selected by the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service for the annual International Rostrum of Composers (IRC) in Vienna 2005 and was subsequently broadcasted internationally.

Among the performers, groups, and orchestras that have played and/or commissioned Anna’s works are: the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Hljómeyki choir, Mótettukór choir, Aton/Njúton, Adapter Ensemble, Athelas Ensemble, Nordlys Ensemble, Vocal ensemble EMO, Vocal ensemble Talla, Harpverk, violinist Elfa Rún Kristinsdóttir, flutist Melkorka Ólafsdóttir, cellist Sigurður Halldórsson, percussionist Frank Aarnink, harpist Katie Buckley, vocalist Stephanie Aston, harpsichordist Goska Isphording, to name a few.

The Iceland Symphony Orchestra has recorded two of Anna’s orchestra pieces, one of which was performed on the March 30th 2006 subscription concert, conducted by Christian Lindberg. Anna’s pieces have been released on several recordings, for example on Roto con moto by Njúton ensemble, which was nominated for the Icelandic Music Awards in 2008.

Anna studied the cello for 12 years, amongst others with Sigurður Halldórsson and Gunnar Kvaran. She also attended masterclasses and private lessons with other cellists, such as Colin Carr, Raphael Walfish and Erling Blöndal Bengtson. She taught the cello in Iceland from 1997 to 2006.

Anna finished her BA degree in composition from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 2004. In 2006 she started her graduate studies at the University of California in San Diego, a leading center for new music, where she received her Masters degree in 2008. She is currently doing her PhD studies in the same department with composer and conductor Rand Steiger. She has also attended many masterclasses and private lessons with several other composers at UCSD and elsewhere, for example Chinary Ung, Roger Reynolds, Philippe Manoury and Tristan Murail. Anna has been working as a teaching assistant at the University of California, San Diego since 2006.

Among Anna’s current commissions is an orchestra piece for the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, to be performed in the fall of 2010 in the new Icelandic National Concert and Conference Centre in Reykjavik.
Upcoming events include performances in Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. There are also upcoming recordings and releases with Hljómeyki choir, Hymnodia choir, Mótettukórinn choir and others, for example a recording of the commissioned 2008 Christmas song for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.


“Anna had two pieces on the program, "Heyr þú oss himnum á", which is an especially bright and beautiful piece…, and the premiere of "Heyr mína sál", which was considerably more serious and dark... In my judgment, Anna S. Þorvaldsdóttir’s pieces were the most noteworthy of an otherwise good set of works, on account of their originality and the strong compositional characteristics they portrayed.”
Ólöf Helga Einarsdóttir, Morgunblaðið, January 29 2007.

“Anna Þorvaldsdóttir’s piece Frankly was beautifully poetic... The result was a musical lyricism that seemed to tell a whole story.”
Jónas Sen, Morgunblaðið, November 4 2006.

“The piece [sundrung - eining] is constructed from clearly demarcated material which is developed in a systematic, confident, and convincing way. ... Sundrung is a captivating elegy. ... The composer manages to richly endow each movement in the material with emotion and each moment has a meaning. ... A very mature and powerful composition.”
Examiner’s Statement, Iceland Academy of the Arts, May 2004.





Anna S. Thorvaldsdottir