Hilmar Thordarson is an internationally recognized Icelandic composer, conductor, and artistic researcher known for his pioneering work at the intersection of acoustic music, live electronics, gesture, and large-scale multimedia performance. Active since the early 1990s, his artistic practice encompasses orchestral and chamber music, opera, and interdisciplinary productions that integrate sound, movement, light, and digital systems.

His music has been performed worldwide by leading ensembles and orchestras including the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Trondheim Sinfonietta, Bodø Sinfonietta, CAPUT Ensemble, and Defunensemble, and presented at major international festivals such as the Reykjavík Art Festival, Nordic Music Days, Warsaw Autumn, Trondheim Kammerfestival, Dark Music Days, the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) World Music Days, and the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC).

Alongside his compositional career, Thordarson has played a formative role in the development of electronic and computer music in Iceland and the Nordic region. He founded and directed the Kópavogur Computer Music Center (KCMC) from 1995 to 2012, establishing it as a central hub for composition, research, education, and live interactive performance. At the Iceland Academy of the Arts, he founded and led the Music and New Media program, shaping curricula and mentoring generations of composers and artists working with music and technology.

Thordarson has received numerous commissions and grants from Arts Council Norway, the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme, the Nordic Council of Ministers, and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others. His work frequently involves long-term collaboration with performers, technologists, and researchers, and has included the development of novel performance interfaces and systems such as the Conducting Digital System (ConDiS).

He holds a Doctor of Fine Arts from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where his doctoral research, The Extended Role of the Conductor in Mixed Music Performance, formalized his artistic research into digital conducting and mixed-music performance. He studied composition at Yale University and the California Institute of the Arts, and has undertaken advanced research and artistic residencies at Stanford University and the Center for New Music and Audio Technology (CNMAT) at the University of California, Berkeley.

Based in Iceland, Thordarson is the founder of Lava Nova AS, dedicated to the creation of large-scale cultural projects that bring together the arts, technology, and science.