Bára Gísladóttir (Photo: Gabrielle Motola)
Each year The Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Foundation gives out fifteen talent awards each of DKK 150,000 to young talented artists under the age of 35 – five musicians, five composers and five sculptors, respectively. Furthermore, the foundation grants the largest honorary awards in Denmark to Danish artists.
Among the recipients of the 2019 talent awards are Bára Gísladóttir and James Black.
Both are among the most talented and interesting composers of their generation, both combine traditional and extended playing techniques, both occasionally enter the stage to perform their own pieces, and both were represented with world premieres at the recently held KLANG festival.
At KLANG 2019 Bára Gísladóttir's 'Music to accompany your sweet splatter dreams' was premiered and according to the critic from Politiken the piece showed “how nightmare-like and transcendent she can write”, and he described the performance as “A crazy experience that put the body in a state of alert”.
Bára Gísladóttir has a number of upcoming performances scheduled, including the performance of her orchestra piece 'ÓS' at the prestigious Warsaw Autumn in Poland in September. Read more here.
James Black (Photo: Niklas Ottander)
James Black was represented at KLANG festival with two world premieres: 'POSY' and 'Lullabies for Lost Children'. 'POSY' involved a boat, a marching band, the summoning of a religious character and much more. Read our interview with James Black about the piece here.
The next opportunity to experience a live performance of James Black's music will be at the festival Ung Nordisk Musik in Piteå, Sweden in August, where his piece 'This piece will improve your life' is included in the programme.
Read more about The Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Foundation, and see the full list of recipients here.