Daníel Bjarnason

Daníel Bjarnason is one of Iceland’s leading musical voices, celebrated internationally as a conductor and composer. He is currently Artist in Association with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, following his previous roles as Artist in Residence (2015–2018) and Principal Guest Conductor (2019–2021). Bjarnason has conducted and had his works performed by major orchestras worldwide, including Los Angeles, New York, Helsinki, Toronto, Tokyo, Gothenburg, Melbourne, Zurich, San Francisco, London and Vienna. His collaborations extend beyond classical music, with projects alongside Rosalía, Sigur Rós, Laufey, Ben Frost, Brian Eno and Efterklang. Recent highlights include premieres of the song cycle Hands on Me with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the orchestral trilogy I Want To Be Alive with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. His opera Brothers has been staged in Denmark, Iceland, Hungary while major concert works include the violin concerto Scordatura (for Pekka Kuusisto) , piano concerto FEAST (for Víkingur Ólafsson), percussion concerto Inferno (for Martin Grubinger) and the orchestral work A Fragile Hope -in memory of Jóhann Jóhannsson . He has also composed the score for the animated film The Last Whale Singer , to be released in 2026. Bjarnason records for Bedroom Community, Sono Luminus, Da Capo, and Deutsche Grammophon, with critically acclaimed projects ranging from contemporary orchestral works to collaborations with Jóhann Jóhannsson. His many honors include multiple Icelandic Music Awards, the Harpa Nordic Film Composers Award and the Optimism Prize from the President of Iceland. He was nominated for a Grammy for the orchestral album Concurrence.