Icelandic composer, musician, and vocalist Hildur Guðnadóttir (Reykjavík, 1982) has become one of the most striking and versatile voices in contemporary music, moving effortlessly between film scores, experimental pop, and modern classical composition. Her work – often intense, poetic, raw and shadowed with darkness – draws on a wide palette, from the legacies of György Ligeti and Kaija Saariaho to minimalism, ambient textures, and noise. Guðnadóttir creates music that gets under the skin: emotionally direct, uncompromising, and always inventive.

She shot to international prominence with her score for Joker (2019), winning an Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Grammy. Other landmark works include HBO’s Chernobyl (2019), TÁR (2022) and Women Talking (2022). Her credits stretch from Sicario: Day of the Soldado and Mary Magdalene to Journey’s End and Tom of Finland, while her music also featured in Hedda (2024), a radical reworking of Ibsen’s play.

Away from the screen, Guðnadóttir has built a formidable solo catalogue. Across four albums – Mount A (2006), Without Sinking (2009), Leyfðu Ljósinu (2012, performed live at the Holland Festival the following year) and Saman (2014) – she explores a striking range of sounds, from fragile intimacy to sweeping sonic landscapes. Recently she appeared in the Netherlands with her band Osmium, alongside James Ginzburg (emptyset, Subtext), Rully Shabara (Senyawa) and Sam Slater.

In 2026 Guðnadóttir will serve as associate artist at the Holland Festival, where she will present Where to From, a new multidisciplinary concert that blends music from her forthcoming album with earlier works, paired with light art by Theresa Baumgartner.

Education

Reykjavík Music Academy

Iceland Academy of the Arts – Composition and New Media

Universität der Künste, Berlin

Selected works

2006 Mount A

2009 Without Sinking

2012 Leyfðu Ljósinu

2014 Saman

2018 Mary Magdalene (film)

2018 Sicario: Day of the Soldado (film)

2019 Chernobyl (TV series)

2019 Joker (film)

2022 TÁR (film)

2022 Women Talking (film)

2024 Hedda (film)

2026 Where to From (multidisciplinary concert)

Awards and honours

2019 Joker – Academy Award for Best Original Score

2019 Joker – Golden Globe for Best Original Score

2019 Joker – BAFTA for Best Original Score

2020 Joker – Grammy Award for Best Score