Additions Announced To Winnipeg New Music Festival

The Winnipeg New Music Festival's (WNMF) unique relationship with Iceland - its innovative composers and their uniquely evocative music - has evolved over a number of seasons. This year is the 100th anniversary of an important milestone in Icelandic history: the Danish Icelandic Act, a pivotal point in Iceland's history and journey to independence. In celebration of that event, the 2018 Festival (running Jan. 27-Feb. 2, 2018) presents multiple world premieres by Icelandic composers including a major new work for orchestra and choir by Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson on January 31.

Also featured is a premiere choral work by two-time Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for Best Score Jóhann Jóhannsson (Jan 29), and a Canadian premiere of music by Björk (Jan. 27). The world premiere live music score and film of "Dawson City: Frozen Time" by film director Bill Morrison (The Miners Hymns with Jóhann Jóhannsson) and Sigur Ros producer, collaborator, and composer Alex Somers (of Jonsi and Alex, and Riceboy Sleeps) takes place Feb. 3. In addition, Björk's pianist and collaborator Jonas Sen will be performing his own music (Jan. 25) as well as performing with Philip Glass (Jan. 28, The Complete Piano Etudes), and there will be a sneak preview of a new film by Guy Maddin (Jan. 25).

During the festival, Hilmarsson will participate in a special ceremony in the town of Gimli, Manitoba, the heart of New Iceland, presenting a new Rune that celebrates the special relationship between Iceland and the Icelandic community of Manitoba.

The Winnipeg New Music Festival thanks the members of the Manitoba Icelandic community and the government of Iceland for their extraordinary support of this year's festival including Iceland Naturally; Arni Thorsteinson & Susan Glass; The University of Manitoba Icelandic Department; Peter Johnson; The Composer Fund of RUV and STEF; Dr. Kenneth Thorlakson; and Icelandair.

Each year, at the peak of its frigid winter, Winnipeg transforms into an oasis of the most inspiring, adventurous, and riveting music of our time. The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's New Music Festival presents its 27th season from January 27 through February 2, 2018, reveling in the music of today, inspiring artists and igniting abundant audiences of all ages. The week-long internationally-acclaimed celebration of creativity is known for bringing together the biggest luminaries in the music and art world - such as Steve Reich, Jim Jarmusch, Dame Evelyn Glennie, and John Corigliano, to name just a few - to explore, debate, and discover. And concert attendance of over 7,000 makes it one of the best attended new music festivals in the world. For 2018, the Winnipeg New Music Festival is thrilled to have iconic American composer Philip Glass in residence as composer and performer. Concerts include the world premiere of Glass' String Quartet No. 8 with the JACK Quartet; the Canadian premiere of the composer's Symphony No. 11; and an evening of the complete Glass Piano Etudes.

About Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson

Composer Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson holds a special place within Iceland and its music scene. Hilmarsson has worked with members of Sigur Rós, Björk, and Steindor Andersen, has contributed deeply emotional film scores to award-winning films, worked with major directors such as Jane Campion, Danish director Henning Carlsen, and Icelandic director Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, won the European Film Composer of the Year Award and in 2017 was nominated for the Harpa Lifetime Achievement Award. Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson is a musician, an art director, and allsherjargoði (chief goði) of Ásatrúarfélagið ("the Ásatrú Association"). He has been a pioneer in the use of computers when composing music and cleared the path for new ideas in recording and arrangements. He has worked on ambitious, experimental and original projects involving film, music, and all the various art forms.

About Johann Johannsson

Jóhann Jóhannsson is a Berlin-based composer originally from Iceland. He is an award-winning composer, musician and producer. His work blends electronics with classical orchestrations and bears the diverse influences of the Baroque, Minimalism and drone-based and electro-acoustic music. Jóhannsson's film soundtrack work has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for best original score (The Theory of Everything, Sicario) and in 2015 he won the Golden Globe for his critically acclaimed score for The Theory of Everything, director James Marsh's biographical drama based on the life of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. Jóhannsson began studying piano and trombone at the age of eleven in his native Reykjavík. He abandoned formal musical training while at high school, however, frustrated by the constraints imposed on music as an academic subject. After studying literature and languages at university, he spent ten years writing music for and playing in indie rock bands, using guitars to compose feedback-drenched pieces and sculpt complex multi-layered soundscapes. By manipulating the resonances of acoustic instruments with digital processing, Jóhannsson created music that integrated acoustic and electronic sounds into something strikingly individual and new. In describing his philosophy of music, Johann has said "music is important to me, but it's not how I define what I do," he says. "I'm obsessed with the texture of sound and interested in minimal forms, with how to say things as simply as possible, how to distill things into their primal form. The simpler the expression, the easier it is to communicate ideas."

About Björk

Icelandic singer, songwriter, producer, DJ, and actress Björk constantly and consistently challenges the status quo, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in music. In her four-decade career, she has been nominated for 14 Grammys, one Academy Award, and two Golden Globes, as well as earning a host of international honours. She won the Best Actress award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival for her performance in the film Dancer in the Dark and was included in Time Magazine's 2015 list of "100 Most Influential People in the World." Her solo albums Debut (1993) and Post (1995) have been certified Platinum, while her 1997 release Homogenic has achieved a Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. Björk's studio album, Vulnicura, was released in January 2015 and nominated for a Grammy for "Best Alternative Music Album" in December of that same year. It has since sparked subsequent related releases, including Vulnicura Strings (2015) and Vulnicura Live (2016). Her composition "Family" was a part of the Vulnicura release and Bjork has subsequently worked on a number of new orchestrations of the music on Vulnicura. Her latest album Utopia was released on November 24, 2017.

About Alex Somers

Alex Somers is a composer, musician, producer, and artist who splits his time between Reykjavík, Iceland and Los Angeles. He first rose to prominence in 2009 via his ambient album Riceboy Sleeps with his partner Jonsi of Sigur Ros. Alex had previously toured America in support of Jónsi's band Sigur Rós with his own outfit Parachutes, having previously attended Berklee College of Music in Boston to study composition.

Following the highly-acclaimed Riceboy Sleeps project, he went on to play keyboards and guitar in Jónsi's touring band, having already co-produced tracks on Jonsi's 2010 debut solo album, Go. Somers then started expanding his production work at his studio space in Reykjavík, co-producing Sigur Rós's 2013 album, Valtari, and producing albums for Death Vessel, Julianna Barwick, and others. In 2014 he mixed Damien Rice's My Favorite Faded Fantasy. In 2015 he and Jonsi scored the first season of WGN's atomic bomb drama Manhattan. Somers is also a visual artist, exhibiting his work with Jónsi around the world, as well as co-creating the sleeves for Sigur Rós's Takk and Riceboy Sleeps. Recently Somers scored the critically acclaimed Captain Fantastic starring Viggo Mortensen. His score for Bill Morrison's Dawson City: Frozen Time was recorded in Iceland. He plays a variety of instruments on all tracks. His brother John Somers is the film's sound designer.

About Bill Morrison

Bill Morrison is a New York-based filmmaker and artist. His films often combine rare archival material set to contemporary music, and have been screened in theaters, cinemas, museums, galleries, and concert halls around the world. He graduated from Cooper Union School of Art. Trained as a painter, his work reflects a deep and abiding attention to the celluloid image. He has collaborated with some of the most influential composers of our time, including John Adams, Gavin Bryars, Richard Einhorn, Bill Frisell, Philip Glass, Michael Gordon, Maya Beiser, Ted Hearne, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Kronos Quartet, David Lang, Steve Reich, and Julia Wolfe among many others. Decasia, a collaboration with the composer Michael Gordon, was selected to the U.S. Library of Congress' 2013 National Film Registry, becoming the most recent film named to the list that preserves works of "great cultural, historic or aesthetic significance to the nation's cinematic heritage." Morrison is a Guggenheim fellow and has had career retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Museum, Minneapolis, Vila Do Conde, Portugal, Adelaide Film Festival, Australia, Aarhus Film Festival, Denmark, among others.

About Jonas Sen

Jónas Sen has an MA degree in Music Performance Studies from the City University in London. He also has an MA degree in Arts Managements from the University of Bifröst. He was additionally educated in Reykjavík and Paris where he studied with the pianist Monique Deschaussées. At present Jónas works as a composer, pianist, music arranger, critic and music teacher. He was the keyboard player in Björk's band on her world tours in 2007 and 2008. More recently he has been a guest performer in several of Björk's Biophilia shows. Björk and Jónas arranged all the Biophilia songs for keyboard instruments, which was released on the iPad and iPhone versions of Biophilia.

About Guy Maddin

Guy Maddin is a Canadian filmmaker with numerous shorts and 11 feature films to his credit, including the Emmy Award-winning ballet film Dracula - Pages From A Virgin's Diary (2002); The Saddest Music in the World (2003); My Winnipeg (2007); and US National Society of Film Critics Best Experimental Film Prize-winners Archangel (1990) and The Heart of the World (2000). He is also a member of The Order of Canada & The Order of Manitoba.

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