Haukur Tómasson

Haukur Tómasson was awarded the 2004 Nordic Council Music Prize, the greatest honour awarded to a Nordic composer. This award, which Tómasson received for his chamber opera Guðrún´s 4th Song, firmly established his stature as one of Scandinavia´s most outstanding composers. The music of Haukur Tómasson is vibrant and scintillating, characterized by intense rhythmic activity, bright, colorful timbres, and a keen ear for novel and effective instrumental combinations. Tómasson´s music bustles with energy and is often quite complex, although the rapidly moving surface rhythm occasionally comes to a halt, giving way to slowly moving sonorities of imposing power and austere beauty. (Árni Heimir Ingólfsson)

“music of piercing clarity of vision and keenness of ear” BBC Music Magazine