Gunnar Andreas Kristinsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1976. He studied composition at the Reykjavik College of Music from 1997 - 2001 with Kjartan Olafsson and Atli H. Sveinsson. In 1999-2000 he went as an exchange student to study with Krzysztof Meyer at the Musikhochschule in Cologne. From September 2001 he studied with Martijn Padding, Diderik Wagenaar and Clarence Barlow at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague where he completed his second phase (master’s degree) in 2004.
Gunnar has been selected five times to take part in the Ung Nordisk Musik festival, where each time a piece of his has been performed. He was granted a Huygens-scholarship from the Nuffic-foundation for the academic year 2002-2003 and in 2003 he got a commission from the Nordic Music-foundation (NOMUS) to compose an organ-piece, Mynstur/mønster/patterns. He was selected to take part in projects with the Dutch ensembles De Volharding in 2002 and Nieuw Ensemble in 2003 and wrote pieces for both of them, Espresso and Tak, that where performed in Vredeburg in Utrecht and Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He was selected to take part in the International Young Composers Meeting in Apeldoorn in February 2004 where his piece Fragment was performed by De Ereprijs and 5 singers.
In 2004 Gunnar got commissions from Soil ensemble to write Arma Virumque Cano (performed in October 2004) and Ensemble Multifoon to write Patterns II (performed twice in January 2005), but these ensembles are both based in Holland. He also got a commission that year from the Motett-choir of Hallgrimskirkja(Iceland) to compose Med glediraust og helgum hljom for mixed choir, organ and saxophone that was performed in November and December 2004. That piece was included on a cd the choir released in November 2005. Kammersveit Reyjavikur (Reykjavik chamber orchestra) performed Arma Virumque Cano in Iceland on the 30th of January 2005. He was a "composer in residence" at Sumartonleikar i Skalholti 2005(Iceland) and for that occasion he wrote two chamber pieces, one for 8 cellos and the other for 6 baroque instruments and a baritone. His duo , Brainstorm in a glass of water, for bass clarinet was premiéred on the Myrkir Musikdagar festival in Reykjavik in February 2006. His current/future projects include two solo piano pieces and a piece for ensemble.
At the moment Gunnar is living and working as a freelance composer in The Netherlands and attending courses at the Amsterdam Conservatory.
