Hugi Gudmundsson (Iceland, 1977) studied composition at Reykjavik College of Music. In 2005 he finished a Masters degree in composition from the Royal Danish Academy of Music where he studied with Bent Sørensen and Hans Abrahamsen among others. He finished a second Master’s degree (electronic music, Institute of Sonology, The Netherlands) spring 2007.

Hugi Gudmundsson has been nominated twelve times for the Icelandic Music Awards and received the award four times. He has twice been nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize, represented both Iceland and Denmark at the International Rostrum of Composers, where he has been shortlisted three times, and won the Nordic Music Days composition competition “Fairy Tales in Music” with his widely performed children work The Deacon of Dark River. In January 2015 he received the most prestigious award given to Icelandic artists, the Optimism Award, awarded by the president of Iceland and he received a three-year work grant from the Danish Arts Council the very same year.

Among his key works is the critically acclaimed and prize winning opera Hamlet in Absentia, the children opera Vølvens Dom which has been performed more than 70 times in three countries and the oratorio The Gospel of Mary which was co-commissioned by festivals and ensembles from Denmark, Iceland and Norway and will be released by Dacapo Records in 2023. 

Gudmundsson’s works have been featured at many international festivals such as Musicarama in Hong Kong, ISCM in Croatia, MATA festival in New York, Oslo International Church Music Festival and several times at Nordic Music Days, to name but a few.

Hugi Gudmundsson lives and works as a composer in Copenhagen, Denmark.

For CV’s in Danish or Icelandic, please get in touch.