As well as releasing several highly original albums, Hildur Guðnadóttir has become the go-to composer for film and TV. She has now composed a new work for the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Clive Paget chats with the renowned Icelandic composer and cellist about her boundary-breaking career, while Cate Blanchett discusses the film Tár and their new theatre collaboration.

Hildur Guðnadóttir. Photo © Camille Blake

As you might expect, the composer of the soundtrack to the film Joker is full of surprises. “My first proper job as a working musician was when I was about 10 or 11, singing in this Viking restaurant with my mum,” is a typical curveball from Hildur Guðnadóttir. It’s something I really wasn’t expecting this open-hearted Icelander with a thoroughly infectious...