ALICE SARA OTT PRESENTS THE WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS OF WORKS BY JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON, REIMAGINED FOR SOLO PIANO
Jóhann Jóhannsson – Piano Works includes tracks from
The Theory of Everything, Copenhagen Dreams and Englabörn
Release date: 6 March 2026
Listen to “Melodia (III)” here
“Jóhann Jóhannsson’s compositions translate beautifully to the piano”
Alice Sara Ott
09 JANUARY 2025 (TORONTO, ON) — Alice Sara Ott presents a collection of world premiere recordings of music by Jóhann Jóhannsson. Recorded in the late composer’s native Iceland, the 30-track Deutsche Grammophon album draws on an edition of solo piano transcriptions of his works recently published by Faber Music. These span the composer’s career, from studio albums such as Englabörn and Orphée to the pioneering scores he wrote for documentaries or feature films such as Copenhagen Dreams, Personal Effects and the Golden-Globe-winning The Theory of Everything.
Jóhann Jóhannsson – Piano Works comes out digitally, on CD and on vinyl (2 LPs) on 6 March 2026, following on from the success of the two EPs (Film Themes and From Englabörn) issued in late 2025, featuring seven of the album’s tracks.
The visionary work of Jóhannsson, a highly influential figure in contemporary music and multi-award-winning film composer, has continued to captivate listeners and inspire musicians since his untimely death in 2018.
Known for her remarkable versatility and her experience in both contemporary and core classical repertoire – as reflected by her recent collaborations with Bryce Dessner and her hugely successful John Field album respectively – Alice Sara Ott was the ideal interpreter for this solo piano project.
Having never had the chance to meet Jóhannsson herself, Ott spent time in preparation for the recordings with some of his friends and colleagues – including Grammy-nominated producer and engineer Bergur Þórisson, in whose Reykjavík studio the sessions took place. The insight she gained from these discussions enhanced her own long-held love of Jóhannsson’s music.
“There’s a very special intimacy and urgency in his musical language,” she says. “It speaks to what people long for in today’s noisy and sometimes very dissonant world. The way he builds the architecture and structure of his music really allows you to refocus and reflect.”
While she played a few of the pieces on a grand piano, Alice chose to record most of the tracks on the old upright piano in Þórisson’s studio. “It’s one of the most beautiful instruments I’ve ever encountered,” she recalls. “Bergur placed the microphones really close to the piano which I think creates this very modern and intimate sound, and a touch of nostalgia.”
“It almost feels,” she goes on, “like you’re having a personal dialogue with Jóhann’s memory. Some of these pieces were written for larger ensembles, as well as electronics, and with just one piano it’s a more condensed and focused sound, but it brings out hidden textures and nuances that highlight the way Jóhann plays with sound and time.”
For the visuals of the artwork, Alice Sara Ott worked with friends and collaborators of Jóhann Jóhannsson, the photographer Jónatan Gretarsson and art director Anders Ladegaard. The CD booklet is illustrated with atmospheric shots of the Icelandic landscape, as well as portraits of both pianist and composer, and contains liner notes written by music critic Wyndham Wallace, who previously wrote liner notes for Jóhannsson’s records. The LP version will be available on black vinyl or as a special crystal-clear vinyl edition. A limited number of copies of the latter, as well as of the CD featuring art cards signed by Ott, will be available exclusively from the DG Store.
“Melodia (III)” will be released as a digital single on 9 January, “Flight from the City” on 30 January, and “Payphone” (from McCanick) on 20 February.
Alice Sara Ott – Upcoming tour dates:
15 Jan 2026 – Konzerthaus, Vienna (Field, Beethoven)
19 Jan 2026 – Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester (Field, Beethoven)
21 Jan 2026 – Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris (Field, Beethoven)
26 Jan 2026 – Konzerthaus, Berlin (Field, Beethoven) · 28 Jan 2026 – De Singel, Antwerp (Field, Beethoven)
1 Apr 2026 – City Hall, Hong Kong (Field, Beethoven) · 8 May 2026 – LOTTE Concert Hall, Seoul (Ravel)
9 May 2026 – Seoul Arts Center, Seoul (Ravel) · 22/23 May 2026 – Konzerthaus, Berlin (Beethoven)
25 May 2026 – Rudolf-Oetker-Halle, Bielefeld (Beethoven) · 26 May 2026 – Philharmonie, Essen (Beethoven)
27 May 2026 – Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg (Beethoven)
30 May 2026 – Meistersingerhalle, Nuremberg (Beethoven)
31 May 2026 – Philharmonie, Cologne (Beethoven)
Jóhannsson’s music will also be celebrated in a special Cinematic Suites concert at London’s Barbican
at which the London Contemporary Orchestra will perform music from his soundtracks to
The Theory of Everything, Prisoners, Sicario and Arrival (18 February).
ALICE SARA OTT
One of the world’s most-streamed classical pianists, Alice Sara Ott is recognised for a distinctive artistic language. Her programmes and formats challenge conventions and rethink the relationship between repertoire, performer and audience. A global artist who performs in the most prestigious venues both as solo pianist and with the world’s leading orchestras, she continually reimagines the repertoire, creating original multimedia experiences through cross-disciplinary collaborations.
Exploring and experimenting have long been part of the German-Japanese pianist’s approach to her work. When touring the music from her 2021 DG album Echoes Of Life, for example, she collaborated with architect Hakan Demirel, whose digital video installation added a visual narrative to her live performances. Then, in 2023, she became the face of the Apple Music Classical app when she starred in its multi-platform video launch campaign, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Karina Canellakis.
Alice is also the first choice for many leading contemporary composers when it comes to premiering and recording their work. This has led to exciting collaborations with Ólafur Arnalds, Bryce Dessner, Chilly Gonzales, and Francesco Tristano, among others.
She became an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist in 2008, when she was 19 years old. Her latest album, Alice Sara Ott: John Field · Complete Nocturnes, was released in February 2025 to critical acclaim. It was Apple Classical Album of the Year and was selected by The New York Times and The Boston Globe as one of their best classical music albums of 2025.
As a complement to the recording, she worked with director Andrew Staples to create Alice Sara Ott: Nocturne, a 45-minute film shot at the Hyperbowl virtual production house in Munich. Offering a rare glimpse into the artist’s mind during the creative process, this immersive film went on to win the 2025 OPUS KLASSIK Audiovisual Music Production of the Year award.
Alice engages actively with the visual and conceptual aspects of her work, occasionally illustrating and designing, exploring connections with fashion, jewellery, and technology. She has worked closely with such leading international brands as Technics; JOST bags (Germany); French jewellery house Chaumet, part of the LVMH group; and German jeweller Wempe.
ABOUT JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON
- Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson was a hugely influential figure in the contemporary music scene.
- Disregarding any notion of barriers between different genres of music, he created his own compositional language, a fusion of classical, minimalist, ambient and electronic elements, with a frequent use of synths and drones. When he died in February 2018, at the age of just 48, he was at the height of his creative powers. His legacy lives on in his wide-ranging recorded catalogue, whose contents span everything from evocative works for small ensemble to strikingly original and multi-award-winning film scores.
Born in Reykjavík in September 1969, Jóhannsson learned piano and trombone in his youth, but was essentially a self-taught musician. He began playing in bands as a teenager, notably the indie outfit Daisy Hill Puppy Farm and the alt-rock HAM, gradually switching his focus to composition. His debut solo album, Englabörn (“Angels”, 2002), revealed an early ability to translate emotions into atmospheric soundscapes and dramatic musical portraits, using a combination of acoustic and electronic instruments.
He developed his experimental idiom in studio albums such as Virðulegu Forsetar (“Honourable Presidents”, 2004), IBM 1401, A User’s Manual (2006) and Fordlandia (2008), while also starting to write music for theatre, television and film. In 2010-11, for example, he gained wider renown with the soundtrack he wrote for The Miners’ Hymns, American director Bill Morrison’s wordless documentary depicting the ill-fated mining community of County Durham in the north-east of England.
Having settled in Berlin, Jóhannsson began a successful working relationship with Denis Villeneuve with the score for 2013’s Prisoners. He followed this with much-lauded soundtracks for Sicario (2015) and Arrival (2016). The former won him his second Oscar nomination – he had earned his first with the music he wrote for James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything (2014), a soundtrack which was also Grammy-nominated and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Score.
In 2016 Jóhannsson signed with DG, who issued both his final solo album, Orphée (that same year) and his final soundtrack album, The Mercy (a second collaboration with Marsh), released just a week before the composer’s death. Working closely with Jóhannsson’s family, friends and colleagues, DG released several posthumous albums, including Englabörn & Variations (2018); 12 Conversations with Thilo Heinzmann (2019); and the soundtrack co-composed with Yair Elazar Glotman for Last and First Men (2020), a sci-fi film Jóhannsson also co-wrote and directed. These have since been followed by, among others, the “contemporary oratorio” Drone Mass (2022); the large-scale orchestral work A Prayer to the Dynamo (2023); and, now, the insightful pianistic readings offered on this album by Alice Sara Ott.