About
Photo by Benni
Þórður Hallgrímsson (1999) is a composer and performer from Reykjavík. He recently finished a Master’s degree in Composition at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where his teachers were Maya Verlaak and Meriç Artaç. Þórður’s interests lie in new approaches to notation and in instrument-building as a compositional practice. In his latest work Human Organ, these two interests are combined, exploring how instruments themselves can function as notation. The work was premiered at Het Orgelpark in Amsterdam on 15th May 2026 and will be performed again at the Hamraborg Festival on 30th August 2026.
His work Pípumessa (Pipe Mass) was presented at Dark Music Days 2025 and at Ung Nordisk Musik in Finland 2025. In the piece, Þórður, together with co-creators Iðunn Einars and Jón Arnar Einarsson, stages a pseudo-religious ritual using homemade recorders, modified and interconnected brass instruments, and a large hand-operated organ pipe. The piece incorporates audience participation and has received critical acclaim.
Þórður forms the duo Spɪtl̥iŋk with Paul J.W. Schauenburg. The duo began collaborating in November 2024 and focuses on building new instruments, often using found materials. Their compositions explore these instruments as material, what they can offer and how a piece can best highlight them. This often results in the instrument and the composition becoming one and the same. An example of this is their work Twin Whistle which has been selected to represent Iceland at UNM 2026 in Copenhagen.
Þórður completed a BA in Composition from the Iceland University of the Arts in 2021, studying with Páll Ragnar Pálsson and Hróðmar Ingi Sigurbjörnsson. After graduating, he went to Tallinn, Estonia, for an apprenticeship with composer Helena Tulve, assisting her with composition, notation, and rehearsals for the opera Wölfe, staged at the Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater in Schwerin, Germany.
Þórður has been selected to participate in the festivals Dark Music Days, Hamraborg Festival and Erkitíð, and his works have been chosen three times to represent Iceland at Ung Nordisk Musik, a festival that presents new works by young composers from the Nordic and Baltic countries. His works have been performed in Iceland, Norway, Denmark, France, Finland, and the Netherlands. He has collaborated with Caput Ensemble, Het Muziek, Score Collective, Global Gongs, Nordic Trombone Quartet, North Atlantic Brass, and Tríó Sól. Þórður serves on the board of the Icelandic UNM committee.
Upcoming projects include concerts with Spɪtl̥iŋk, a workshop with violist Þórhildur Magnúsdóttir, a workshop with the experimental collective Píptest, participation at UNM 2026 in Copenhagen, a performance of Human Organ at the Hamraborg Festival, a new work for solo trombone and electronics with Jón Arnar Einarsson, a workshop with poet Birgitta Björg Guðmarsdóttir for the opera Megafána, and a 30-minute work for Caput Ensemble and trombonist Jón Arnar Einarsson planned for latter half of 2026. Pípumessa will tour Europe in early 2027.