Among current contemporary musicians attracting international interest, Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b. 1977) has built an enviable reputation with a significant body of thoughtful work for a wide range of forces. Her style is rooted in nature, creating ecosystems of sonic structures, transformed, developed and transmitted from performer to performer within a piece.

“My music is often inspired in an important way by nature and its many qualities, but I do not strive to describe or literally incorporate elements from nature in my music,” she writes. “To me, the qualities of the music are first and foremost musical – so when I am inspired by a particular element that I perceive in nature,...