Hildur Guðnadóttir
Hildur Ingveldardóttir Guðnadóttir[a] (born 4 September 1982) is an Icelandic musician and composer. A classically trained cellist, she has played and recorded with the bands Pan Sonic, Throbbing Gristle, Múm, and Stórsveit Nix Noltes, and has toured with Animal Collective and Sunn O))). She has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, two Grammy Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award.
This is an Icelandic name. The last name is patronymic, not a family name; this person is referred to by the given name Hildur.
Hildur Guðnadóttir
Hildur Ingveldardóttir Guðnadóttir
4 September 1982
Reykjavík, Iceland
- Composer
- musician
2001-present
Touch Music/Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Classics
Hildur has gained international recognition for her film and television scores, including for Journey's End (2017), Mary Magdalene (2018), Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018), Todd Field's Tár and Sarah Polley's Women Talking (both 2022). For her score to Todd Phillips' psychological drama film Joker (2019), she won the Academy Award for Best Original Score, the BAFTA Award for Best Original Music, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, making her the first solo female composer to win in all three.[1][2] She is also known for her work on the HBO miniseries Chernobyl (2019), which won her a Primetime Emmy Award, a BAFTA TV Award and a Grammy Award.
Early life[edit]
Hildur was born in 1982 in Reykjavík, Iceland,[3] and was raised in Hafnarfjörður.[4] She comes from a family of musicians — her father, Guðni Franzson, is a composer, clarinet player and teacher. Her mother, Ingveldur Guðrún Ólafsdóttir, is an opera singer, and her brother is Þórarinn Guðnason from the band Agent Fresco.[4] Hildur began playing cello at the age of five and performed her first professional gig at 10 alongside her mother at a restaurant.[5] She attended the Reykjavik Music Academy and went on to study composition and new media at the Iceland Academy of the Arts and the Berlin University of the Arts.[3]
Personal life[edit]
Hildur lives in Berlin with her son (born 2012).[5][20] She is married to Sam Slater, an English composer, music producer and sound artist, with whom she collaborated on multiple projects including Chernobyl and Joker.[4][21][22][23] She also used to share a studio with fellow composers Dustin O'Halloran and the late Jóhann Jóhannsson, the latter being a frequent collaborator, while residing in Berlin.[4]