ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR

‘‘What resonates mostly with me after having grown up as a child in Iceland is this sense of space - both physical space and mental space.’’

Growing up in Iceland, composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s relationship with music was formed long before she began composing professionally. Surrounded by sound, landscape and vast open space, creativity was not something separate from daily life, but something that existed naturally within. That early sense of space, physical and emotional, continues to shape how she approaches music today. 

Words by Caoimhe Clements. Photographed by Edwin S Freyer at Goodwood Art Foundation.

‘‘As I was growing up, I was always very close to music.’’ Music was a part of family life. “My family, there was a lot of singing and playing instruments,” she explains. But it was Iceland itself that left the deepest imprint. “I grew up surrounded by mountains and the ocean,” she says. She studied composition at the Iceland Academy of the Arts before earning her PhD at the University of California, San Diego. Today, she is based in England. 

Anna doesn’t recall a single defining moment when she decided professionally to become a composer. “I don’t feel that there was a moment,” she says. “I feel it was more of an organic feeling that was always within me.” As a teenager, her musical world expanded. “I was playing more and more instruments,” she recalls. “Then I started to learn cello, and I knew that was my instrument as soon as I started playing it.” Around the same time, she began exploring new sounds. “I also got to know more and more contemporary music.”

It was this ‘feeling’ and passion for her craft that has led to accolades and commissions by some of the most prestigious international orchestras and institutions including the New York, Los Angeles and Berlin Philharmonics, Orchestre de Paris, the BBC Proms and Carnegie Hall. Her work entitled CATAMORPHOSIS won the UK’s Ivors Composer Award for Large Scale Composition in 2021 and in 2024 she received the CHANEL Next Prize.

 Nature and landscape are often associated with Thorvaldsdottir’s work, though she is careful to describe that influence in her own terms. “It’s not that I sit down and think of that sense of space,” she says. “I think it is within me very organically.” For her, inspiration is never singular. “The music comes from many different things,” she explains.

Her creative process begins with openness rather than certainty. From there, ideas take shape gradually. Writing for large orchestras is central to her work, though it demands patience. “It’s a really long process,” she says.

As her music travels the world, she feels it takes on its own life. “The people that carry the music give it new energy each time it is performed.” When it comes to listeners, Thorvaldsdottir resists prescribing meaning. “I don’t want to tell people how to feel,” she says. “I really want to take them on the journey and allow them their space within the music.” For her, the experience matters more than explanation. “My music is always about the whole journey — where you’re starting and where you go in the middle and then where you end up.”

Looking ahead, her focus remains firmly on large-scale work. “At the moment, I’m writing a big symphony piece,” she says. “So, a huge orchestral work.” As ever, she stays open to where the music leads. “Each and every piece that I write,” she reflects, “is about finding where that piece wants to live.”

Project in collaboration with SoundandMusic, The UK’s accelerator for new music and sound. Their mission is to be the basecamp for anyone who wants to make, experience or support new music and sound to shape the modern world. Bringing the frontiers of music and sound closer to every person in the UK. Find out more at soundandmusic.org

This Industry Voice piece is part of The Music Issue 16. Purchase your copy here.