– In pursuit of the openness of
musical thought and vision –
Hilmar Thórdarson
Hilmar Thórdarson was born 1960 in Akureyri, Iceland. He studied composition at the Reykjavik College of Music, the California Institute of the Arts, and the Yale School of Music. After graduation, Hilmar was a visiting scholar at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University and, later, at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) at the University of California Berkeley, focusing on interactive composition. Thórdarson holds a doctoral degree in Artistic research from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway, where he lives.
In addition to being a productive composer, Thórdarson has been involved in developing new methods of music education, composition, and music performance. In 1995, he founded the Kopavogur Computer Center (KCMC) at the Kopavogur School of Music, which opened up opportunities for people of all ages to enroll in computer music studies where the computer was their main instrument. Thórdarson directed Iceland’s first international computer music festival, ART2000, which was held that year and later received the Cultural Award of the Year. Shortly after that, he established the New Media Lab at the Department of Music at the Iceland Academy of the Arts. He was a pioneer of the RAFlost electronic music festival and one of the board members of the Icelandic Electronic Arts Society. Thórdarson has served on the Icelandic Composers Society board, was a composer representative on the program committee of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra program committee, and was chairman of the Icelandic Music Information Centre.
In 2012, Thórdarson moved to Norway focusing on artistic research and his compositions.
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