Daníel Bjarnason

• Born: February 26, 1979, Iceland
  
  

I Want to Be Alive—Trilogy for Orchestra First Part: “Echo/Narcissus”

• Composed: 2023
• Premiere: These performances are the work’s U.S. premiere; its world premiere took place in June 2023 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Gustavo Gimeno conducting. 
• CSO–Bjarnason collaborations: This is the second CSO commission for Bjarnason. The CSO commissioned Collider in 2015 as part of the MusicNOW Festival. 
• Instrumentation: 3 flutes (incl. piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets (incl. E-flat clarinet), bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drums, crotales, crash cymbals, glockenspiel, guiro, tom-tom, lion’s roar, snare drum, tam-tam, temple blocks, tenor drum, vibraphone, vibraslap, whip, wood block, wooden plank, electric guitar, harp, piano, strings
• Duration: approx. 20 minutes

Daníel Bjarnason is one of Iceland’s foremost musical voices, increasingly in demand as conductor, composer and artistic programmer. He is Artist-in-Collaboration with Iceland Symphony Orchestra, an appointment that follows his tenures as Principal Guest Conductor and Artist-in-Residence. Many of his works are taken up beyond their premieres and regularly programmed around the world.

In 2023–24, I Want to Be Alive—Trilogy for Orchestra First Part: “Echo/Narcissus,” co-commissioned by the Toronto (world premiere), Cincinnati (U.S. premiere) and Iceland (European premiere) symphony orchestras and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. This season also sees performances of his Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra, Inferno, written for Martin Grubinger, with Orchestre de Paris and Elim Chan at Philharmonie de Paris, as well as his work for orchestra, A Fragile Hope, with the Gothenburg Symphony. In 2021–22, the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, FEAST, written for Víkingur Ólafsson, was performed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles by Ólafsson and Esa-Pekka Salonen. 

Bjarnason maintains a close connection with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, having written From Space I Saw Earth for Gustavo Dudamel, Zubin Mehta and Esa-Pekka Salonen to conduct together at the orchestra’s Centennial Birthday Celebration Concert and Gala in 2019. In 2017, the LA Philharmonic premiered Bjarnason’s Violin Concerto, Scordatura, at the Hollywood Bowl, in a co-commission with the Iceland Symphony for Pekka Kuusisto, while he co-curated the orchestra’s Reykjavík Festival, an eclectic and multi-disciplinary 17-day event, in which he featured as conductor and composer. In 2023, Bjarnason was named Guest Artist in Residence at Copenhagen Opera Festival, where Den Islandske Opera, Malmö Opera and Copenhagen Opera Festival gave a co-production of his first opera, Brothers, written in 2017. 

Bjarnason was awarded the Optimism Prize in 2018 by the President of Iceland, won the 8th Harpa Nordic Film Composers Award for the feature film Under the Tree, and was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize. He also won Composer of the Year, Best Composer/Best Composition and Best Performer at the Icelandic Music Awards in recent years.

Bjarnason provided the following thoughts about I Want to Be Alive:

I Want to Be Alive draws inspiration from different questions about the nature of consciousness and what it means to be alive. While the idea of AI (artificial intelligence) consciousness is still the subject of much debate and speculation, recent advances in machine learning and neural networks have brought us closer than ever to the possibility of creating machines that can think, reason and feel. But with this power comes great responsibility, and it raises ethical questions around the treatment of intelligent machines and their place in society.

This first movement of the Trilogy is inspired by the myth of Echo and Narcissus, which speaks to these themes, as it portrays the longing for connection and recognition that lies at the heart of human consciousness. Echo, the nymph who can only repeat the words of others, yearns to be heard as an individual, while Narcissus becomes obsessed with his own reflection, unable to connect with the world outside of himself.

At its core, the story of Echo and Narcissus reflects on the fundamental human desire for autonomy and self-determination and the ways in which we seek to exert control over our own lives. As we continue to develop AI technology and explore the boundaries of consciousness, we must also confront the limitations and ethical implications of creating and using intelligent machines. This invites us to reflect on what it means to be human in the face of rapidly advancing technology and to consider the role of empathy and connection in shaping our future. Can a machine truly be alive?

Can it have a sense of self?

And if so, how do we relate to it?