Daniel Bjarnason
Conductor and composer Daníel Bjarnason is Artist in Association at the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. He was the orchestra's Artist in Residence from 2015 to 2018 and was appointed as Principal Guest Conductor at the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in 2019.
Daníel Bjarnason is one of Iceland's foremost musical voices today, increasingly in demand as a conductor, composer and programmer. This season he takes up the title of Principal Guest Conductor with Iceland Symphony Orchestra, leading the Orchestra on tour to Munich, Salzburg and Berlin, as well as in Reykjavík. The appointment follows his tenure there as Artist in Residence. He keeps a busy composing schedule alongside his conducting commitments, with many of his works being taken up beyond their premieres and regularly programmed around the world.
As guest conductor he debuts this season with Gothenburg Symphony and Aalborg Symphony orchestras and Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife. Previous guest appearances include invitations from Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Tokyo Symphony and Turku Philharmonic orchestras and Gävle Symfoniorkester.
Bjarnason maintains a close connection with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which commissioned him to write a work for Gustavo Dudamel, Zubin Mehta and Esa-Pekka Salonen, titled From Space I Saw Earth, was performed at their Centennial Birthday Celebration Concert in October 2019. The Orchestra is also part of a new song cycle commission by the Crash Ensemble, together with Musiekgebouw Frits Phillips Eindhoven, where Bjarnason has been Composer in Residence since 2016, and already requested from him a new concerto for piano and orchestra for a future season.
In 2017 the Los Angeles Philharmonic premiered Bjarnason's Violin Concerto at the Hollywood Bowl, in a co-commission with Iceland Symphony for Pekka Kuusisto, while he co-curated the orchestra's Reykjavík Festival, an eclectic and multi-disciplinary 17-day event, in which he featured as conductor and composer.