Gísladóttir has established herself as a major figure on the contemporary music scene and attracts attention both in Denmark and internationally with her uncompromising Nordic universe. Now she is announced as one of the recipients of Denmark’s largest and most prestigious arts awards: The Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Honorary Award 2025
The music of Bára Gísladóttir begins from a consideration of sound as a living being. The bass is central to Gísladóttir’s compositional aesthetic: her music often focuses on a single fundamental tone, over which she layers multiple worlds of sound, analogous to the range of harmonics and overtones that may be drawn out from a single point on a bass string. She draws no distinction between improvisation and composition – to her, one is simply a form of the other – and her music often features extended improvisatory elements. Inspired equally by death metal or techno as by Scelsi, Gísladóttir’s music explores extremes of noise and dynamic, often cut through with a dark sense of humour.
Bára Gísladóttir is one of the most sought after composers of her generation and her music has been performed by musicians, ensembles and orchestras such as The Danish National Symphony Orchestra, The Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble recherche, , Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Riot Ensemble and WDR Sinfonieorchester just to name a few.
Gísladóttir’s concert calendar is rarely without activity, and in the fall of 2025, she will even have world premieres of two new orchestral works on two consecutive days – first with the Odense Symphony Orchestra, followed by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
Bára Gísladóttir has previously received several prizes and honours for her work. Most recently she received the very prestigious Ernst von Siemens Composer Prize in 2024. She has also received the Icelandic Music Award, the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Foundation’s Talent Award, Gladsaxe Music Prize, Léonie Sonning Talent Prize and the Reykjavík Grapevine's Music Awards. In 2022, her workVÍDDIR was nominated for the Nordic Council Prize and in 2023 her piece Animals of your pasture was shortlisted for The Royal Philharmonic Society Awards.