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Daníel Bjarnason is one of the most important musical voices in Iceland. As a creative conductor, composer and programmer, he currently enjoys worldwide acclaim. Bjarnason is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, having previously served there as Artist in Residence. He is also very active and successful as a composer.

His new Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra will be premiered this season with dedicatee Martin Grubinger and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Tomas Djupsjöbacka. Another new work will be presented by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, which has commissioned several compositions from Bjarnason.

Bjarnason also maintains close ties with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, which commissioned him to write the centennial work ›From Space I Saw Earth‹ which Gustavo Dudamel, Zubin Mehta and Esa-Pekka Salonen premiered together in 2019. In 2017, the Los Angeles Philharmonic had already premiered Bjarnason's Violin Concerto at the Hollywood Bowl - a co-commission with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra for Pekka Kuusisto while Bjarnason co-curated the Reykjavík Festival.

Bjarnason's first opera ›Brothers‹ which premiered at the Danish National Opera in 2017, was also successfully revived by the Icelandic Opera in Reykjavík in 2018 and also opened the 2019 Armel Opera Festival in Budapest.

Bjarnason studied piano, composition and conducting in Reykjavík and pursued further studies in orchestral conducting at Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. He released several albums for the label Bedroom Community.

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