Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson

b. 1938 , d. 2013

Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson (b.1938) studied piano at the Reykjavík College of Music, then continued his education in the United States. He attended Hamline University, Minnesote, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, completing a master´s degree in composition in 1961 under the tutelage of Kenneth Gaburo and Lejaren Hiller. He also attended summer courses in composition at Darmstadt, Nice and Tanglewood.

He was an active participant in Iceland´s musical scene as pianist, teacher, critic, and radio commentator. He was chairman of the Icelandic Composers´ Association from 1983-88, and also served as chairman of the League of Icelandic Artists. He was one of the leaders of Musica Nova, a group devoted to the performance of new music in Iceland, and was an influential teacher of theory and composition at the Reykjavík College of Music and the Iceland Academy of the Arts.

Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson is one of the best known and prolific of Icelandic composers today and his catalog is extensive. He is best known for his sacred choral music, the most famous being "Heyr, himna smiður", but he also wrote numerous orchestral works, such as Mistur (1972), Rhyme (1975), and Triphonia (1990), the oratorio Immanuel (1999), the children´s opera Apaspil (1966), The Girl in the Lighthouse (2000), the electronic works Fípur (1971) and La Jolla Good Friday (1976), concertos for flute, violin, cello, and double bass, five string quartets, orchestral works Gaits (2001) and A Little Summer Music (2006) and the chamber opera Grettir, which received its first performance in Bayreuth in 2004. Þorkell received an honourary doctorate from Hamline University in 1999 and was a member of the Royal Swedish Music Academy.