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Home   >   Projects   >   Aerial   >   Press Release

Track Listing:

1
into - Second Self
2
Ro
3
Aeriality
4
Tactility III, I, II
5
Trajectories
6
Shades of Silence

Anna Thorvaldsdottir :

Aerial

"Thorvaldsdottir's music has a natural beauty to it in the way it reveals itself patiently, and in its unpredictable but organic-seeming instances of rhythmic quickening." New York Times

"One of the most involving and affecting concerts in several years . . . Thorvaldsdottir has a notable compositional voice: her unique ability to manipulate her material so that the passage of time is made beautiful." New York Classical Review

"A significant compositional voice." The Wire Magazine

"The depth and sumptuousness of the orchestral writing . . . turn this into a compelling, even ravishing creation." San Francisco Chronicle

"Frosty orchestral music seems to invoke a shimmery soundworld of textures"  WNYC
 

Anna Thorvaldsdottir is an Icelandic composer who frequently works with large sonic structures that tend to reveal the presence of a vast variety of sustained sound materials, reflecting her sense of imaginative listening to landscapes and nature. Her music tends to portray a flowing world of sounds with an enigmatic lyrical atmosphere.

Next month, she will return with a new album of original recordings, Aerial, which will see its release via new label home Deutsche Grammophon / Universal Music Classics on November 11th. It includes six expansive new works with ensembles of varying sizes and is the follow up to her noteworthy debut portrait album, 2011's Rhízōma, which ended up on numerous year end lists.

Anna's music is frequently performed in Europe and internationally, and has been featured at several major venues and music festivals such as Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival with the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Composer Portraits Series at NYC's Miller Theatre, ISCM World Music Days, Nordic Music Days, Ultima Oslo Festival, Klangspuren Festival, Beijing Modern Music Festival, Reykjavik Arts Festival, Tectonics, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Her works have been nominated and awarded on many occasions, including the Icelandic Music Awards and the International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition. Anna is also the recipient of the prestigious Nordic Council Music Prize 2012 for her work, Dreaming.

Among the orchestras and ensembles that Anna has worked with are the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, BIT20, Musiques Nouvelles, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Yarn/Wire, the CAPUT Ensemble and Either/Or Ensemble. Anna holds a PhD in music composition from the University of California in San Diego.

Aerial comes out November 11th on Deutsche Grammophon / Universal Music Classics.

"Here is a composer with a distinctive sound world, and the ability to choose, from a wide textural palette, the most apt instrumental voice for a given moment. Yet, unlike some who toil in the au courant genre of the soundscape, she also knows how to build and sustain tension and convey emotion while evoking the vast sweep of the ages." Classical Voice North America