Bára Gísladóttir – Composer in Residence
The Icelandic composer is writing a new opera for the Deutsche Oper, and she will also be appearing in other performances, including at the Gedächtniskirche and Berghain. She will also be performing as a double bass player.
With productions from London to Tenerife, from Warsaw to New York, Bára Gísladóttir is one of the most in-demand composers of her generation. The winner of the Ernst von Siemens Composer Prize and the Carl Nielsen Talent Award is also a world traveller with regard to genre: Her compositions appealing to the avant-garde New Music and alternative scenes, symphony concerts and indie festivals. Starting with her roots in classical tradition, the Iceland native transcends genres toward the raw sounds of heavy and doom metal, the technoid realms of noise and drone, and the endless horizon of experimental jazz. This multi-perspective aesthetic proves particularly sensitive to the physical aspects of sound. «For me, it’s always about the direct physical impact when the sound literally makes us vibrate from within.»
Gísladóttir understands sounds as dynamic, living entities that are in perpetual motion, and thus in a fluid relation to one another and in relation to their environment. At the core of her music is the profound immersion in sonic spaces to make microcosms visible, and where they can be expanded and tapped as places for experimentation. «When you zoom into a sound, you find an entirely unique cosmos waiting to be explored.» Her work centres equally on the expansion of compositional tools through electro-acoustic elements as well as haptic contact and resonation with the instrument.
As a contrabassist, Gísladóttir performs with the Elja Ensemble, regularly appears as a duo with bass guitarist Skúli Sverrisson and performs her own works as a soloist. One example is Silva, a piece for contrabass and live electronics that has been performed at festivals in Linz, Bratislava, Reykjavik and Huddersfield in the United Kingdom, and is now being shown at Berghain as part of her residency with Deutsche Oper Berlin. At the other end of the spectrum is the ensemble piece Víddir, the German premiere of which will be held at the Gedächtniskirche in Berlin. Víddir—composed in 2019 as a graduation piece for Grundtvig’s Church in Copenhagen—has already been performed in Aarhus, Helsinki, Ghent, San Diego and Ensenada in Mexico. The Icelandic composer spent about ten years working in Copenhagen after studying in Reykjavik and the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan.
Gísladóttir has focused increasingly on interdisciplinary work for several years. For example, she improvised live to the psychedelic nature imagery of the film The Breathing Forest by Wolfgang Lehmann. Her partnership with choreographer Ben J. Riepe brought her to Staatsoper Hannover, Tanzfabrik Köln, tanzhaus nrw in Düsseldorf and Festspielhaus Hellerau in Dresden. She has designed sound installations for galleries and cooperated with visual artists. In addition, she writes music for theatre, most recently for Benedict Andrews’ Oresteia at the National Theatre of Iceland. Gísladóttir’s first full-length opera will now be shown at Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Silva > 25.11.26
Together with the CTM Festival, Unlimited invites you to Berghain, where Bára Gísladóttir is presenting her one-hour solo work Silva on contrabass. The work combines influences from a range of genres, from experimental music and heavy metal to noise, drone, techno and electronic.
Location: Berghain
At the Movies > 13.1.27
Unlimited brings opera to the cinema: at delphi LUX, artists we encounter during the opera season reveal their secret favourite films, guilty pleasures or cinematic inspirations in the context of opera productions – and introduce them personally.
Location: delphi LUX
Improvisation > 14.1.27
Improvisation as a cornerstone of vibrant musical culture: what formal or harmonic agreements are made to enable free music-making? How do different eras differ in this respect? A celebration of spontaneity from baroque to jazz with composer in residence Bára Gísladóttir.
Location: Tischlerei
Good Vibes Only > 22.1.27 – 12.2.27
A digital labyrinth: tens of thousands of digital posts are created every second worldwide. Posts are made, tweets are written, videos are uploaded. Around two thirds of the global population use social media regularly, and almost half do so daily. A torrent of information rains down on the human brain, forcing it to make decisions on boundless paths through the ever-expanding digital jungle. This heterogeneous crossfire in the endless feed of constantly replenished content forms a maelstrom from which the recipient can hardly escape. Icelandic composer Bára Gísladottir and French author and director Joris Lacoste set out in search of patterns in this multidimensional chaos.
Location: Large house
Víddir > 29.1.27
Originally composed for Grundtvig’s Church in Copenhagen Víddir for nine flutes, three percussionists, bass guitar and contrabass is now celebrating its German premiere at the Gedächtniskirche in Berlin. The work by Bára Gísladóttir transforms the church space into a living body of sound. Like a cocoon, the audience sits in a circle between the instrument groups: the sound wanders, rises, falls and spreads in waves and layers.
Location: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche