Daníel Bjarnason

Daníel Bjarnason is an Icelandic composer and conductor whose work spans orchestral and chamber music, opera, film and collaborative recording. His longstanding relationship with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra has included appointments as Artist in Residence, Principal Guest Conductor and Artist in Association.

His Bedroom Community recordings include Processions (2010), Sólaris (2011), made with Ben Frost, and Over Light Earth (2013). His score for Under the Tree received the 2018 Harpa Nordic Film Composers Award.

His concert works include the violin concerto Scordatura, written for Pekka Kuusisto, the piano concerto FEAST for Víkingur Ólafsson, the percussion concerto Inferno for Martin Grubinger, and the orchestral trilogy I Want to Be Alive. His opera Brothers, based on Susanne Bier’s film, premiered at the Danish National Opera in 2017 and has also been staged in Iceland and Hungary.

As a conductor, he led the world premiere of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Last and First Men with the BBC Philharmonic at Manchester International Festival in 2017. His collaborations outside the concert hall include projects with Sigur Rós, Efterklang, Laufey and Rosalía.