Anna Thorvaldsdottir

Synopsis

Today’s date in 1977 marks the birth of a composer whose debut recording was greeted by critical raves. The New York Times noted “seemingly boundless textural imagination,” and National Public Radio hailed “one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary music.”  That debut disc was titled Rhízōma, a Greek word meaning “mass of roots.” In botany it refers to a subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots. 

The roots and shoots of the composer whose works appeared on that debut seem firmly planted deep in her native Icelandic soil. Her name is Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and it’s not too fanciful to hear in her music the stark beauty of Iceland’s waterfalls, geysers, volcanoes, black sand beaches, and otherworldly lava fields.

The opening track on her debut from 2011 was a work for chamber orchestra entitled Hrím, the Icelandic word for “frost.”

In an interview Thorvaldsdottir says, “I was making up songs from an early age and studied a few different instruments before I found the cello which I became very passionate about. Then at around 19 years old I started to notate the music I had in my head and have been doing that ever since.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b. 1977): Hrím; Caput Ensemble; Innova 810 (original release) and Sono Luminus Editions 70018

On This Day

Births

• 1836 - Brazilian opera composer Antonio Carlo Gomes, in Campinas

Deaths

• 1937 - American composer George Gershwin, 38, in Hollywood, following an operation on a cystic brain tumor

Premieres

• 1882 - MacDowell: Modern Suite No. 1 for Piano, in Zurich, with composer as soloist

• 1921 - Gershwin: musical revue, George White's Scandals of 1921, at the Liberty Theater in New York City

• 1996 - James MacMillan: The World’s Ransoming (English horn Concerto), at the Barbican in London, by soloist Christine Pendrill with the London Symphony, Kent Nagano conducting

• 2003 - Peter Maxwell Davies: Naxos Quartet No. 2, at the Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham (UK), as part of the Cheltenham International Festival by the Maggini Quartet

Others

• 1798 - In the nation's capital of Philadelphia, President John Adams signed an Act of Congress establishing the United States Marine Band (The original 32 drummers and fifers assisted in recruiting and entertained residents)

• 1885 - First concert of the Boston Promenade Orchestra (later dubbed the Boston Pops) at the old Music Hall in Boston. Adolf Neuendorff conducts.

• 1922 - Opening concert of the Hollywood Bowl, with German conductor Alfred Hertz at the podium

• 1940 - Leonard Bernstein's first appearance as conductor of a professional orchestra, leading a performance of Wagner’s Act I Prelude to Die Meistersinger with the Boston Pops at an open-air Esplanade Concert

• 1998 - The President’s Own U.S. Marine Band, America’s oldest professional musical organization, marks its 200th anniversary