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WildKat PR welcomes Daníel Bjarnason

Thursday 1st August 2013

WildKat PR is delighted and excited to welcome Daníel Bjarnason as a new client to our roster.

Daníel Bjarnason is a multi-award winning Icelandic composer and conductor. Having studied piano, composition and conducting in Reykjavík, Bjarnason went on to study orchestral conducting at the Freiburg University of Music. His versatility as a composer and performer has led to collaborations with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Britten Sinfonia, John Adams and André de Ridder. Daníel is currently writing a large orchestral work for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel for the 2013/14 season. Bjarnason has also worked with a broad array of musicians outside of the classical field, most notably with Sigur Ròs and with Ben Frost to create ‘Music for Sólaris’ which has toured Europe, North America and Australia.

His new album Over Light Earth will be released on Bedroom Community on 30th September 2013. The title work was commissioned and premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and is Bjarnason’s nod towards the work of the so-called New York School of painters such as Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock, whose canvases No. 9 (Dark Over Light Earth) and Number 1, 1949 inspired the two movements of ‘Over Light Earth’. As Bjarnason says: “What I find so amazing about Pollock is that seeing his paintings is such a visceral experience…seemingly chaotic, but when you stand and look at it for a while, there is also a very pleasing sense of symmetry and calmness…In ‘Number 1, 1949’, I am in some ways describing this reaction…like going into the painting and out of it again”.

Bjarnason has won a number of awards including the prestigious Nordic Council’s Music Prize and the Kraumur Music Award, and in 2008 and 2011 was awarded a special recommendation for his work at the International Rostrum of Composers.

For Daníel’s full biography please visit Bedroom Community, as well as Daníel’s own website, Facebook and Twitter accounts.