ACL 2013: Top Ten Modern Composition

This may be called Neoclassical, Modern Classical or Modern Compostion, but everyone knows what it is: classical music for a modern generation.  When it comes to honoring remarkable writing and playing, Modern Compostion is the genre to which we turn.

Daníel Bjarnason ~ Over Light Earth

I first encountered the work of Daníel Bjarnason in 2008, when I picked up a CD, unheard, in a Reykjavik shoppe.  The suite “All Sounds to Silence Come” was immediately enthralling, and I suspected that the young composer might be the

Anna Thorvaldsdottir ~ Rhízōma

The brightest new composer in the Icelandic music community, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, will remind many of Daniel Bjarnason.  This should come as no surprise, as the exquisitely complex and occasionally atonal “Dreaming” features Bjarnason’s conducting work for the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra.