Theresa Thordarson
Theresa Thordarson’s boundless creative drive springs from a lifetime of musical risk-taking. Growing up in rural Manitoba, Theresa experienced an environment where the classical canon was just one of many influences. Her curiosity has led her to explore unexpected connections across disparate musical worlds. Her musical creations embrace playful pastoral poetry, subtle and surprising harmonies, and memorable melodies. Theresa performs traditional, contemporary, and original music as a pianist/keyboardist, collaborator, and vocalist. Highlight performances include concerts for the Banff Centre’s Musicians in Residency Program, Westben’s Performer-Composer Residency in Campbellford ON, Cluster Festival, Brandon Chamber Players, the Manitoba Icelandic Festival, Winnipeg Baroque Festival, Send and Receive, Winterruption, Nuit Blanche Winnipeg, and Lethbridge’s Centric Festival. She sings, synths, and writes adventurous pop music as one half of the duo Bicycle Face with guitarist Ava Glendinning and, in 2024, released a solo chamber-folk album entitled ‘revery’ under her solo project name theresa thor. Theresa also leads The SunDog Ensemble, a band of performer-composers which aims to create genre-defying new chamber works featuring co-creation and improvisation. Theresa received her B. Mus. in Piano Performance from Brandon University and her M. Mus. in Piano Performance from the State University of New York at Fredonia and has been employed as a sessional instructor and collaborative pianist at both institutions. Theresa makes her home in Winnipeg where she hosts a lively teaching studio and many plants.
Featured at CMI
Hypoballad
Hypoballad explores narrative musical elements from the lives of Icelandic twin sisters Herdis and Olina Andrésdóttir, both poets in the ballade and rímur tradition whose work centered on nature and the experiences of peasant women. It draws musical inspiration from Frédéric Chopin, Icelandic folk traditions, and Björk Guðmundsdóttir. This music features “twin themes”, one representing each sister, which weave together to portray their childhood, unravel after their father’s tragic death at sea, are explored independently during their lives of separation, and are once more entwined upon their reunion in Reykjavik after 50 years apart. Together, in 1924 at the age of 66, Herdis and Olina published their first written work Ljóðmæli (Poems) to much acclaim.