Víkingur Ólafsson

Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson began building his mark over the wider traditional music world in the middle-2010s, after being successful several main arts awards in his homeland. Ólafsson started his studies in the home in Iceland, after that gained his bachelor’s and master’s levels from Juilliard, where his principal teachers had been Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald. By 2017, he previously premiered five piano concertos, operating straight with composers such as for example Philip Cup, Daníun Bjarnason, and Haukur Tómasson, whose concerto he premiered through the 2016-2017 time of year. He in addition has collaborated on tasks with visual performers such as for example Roman Signer and Lillevän, and music artists like Sayaka Shoji, Pekka Kuusisto, and Björk. Ólafsson’s recital applications are thoughtfully constructed, linking music by theme, historic framework, tonality, or a combined mix of elements. That sort of treatment and understanding led him to sponsor a Television series about traditional music for the Icelandic Country wide Broadcasting Services entitled Útúrdúr (“Out-of-tune,” 2013-2014), also to him becoming named artistic movie director of Iceland’s Vinterfest, overtaking in 2016 through the music festival’s founding movie director, Martin Fröst. Ólafsson can be founder and creative director from the Reykjavik Midsummer Music event. In November 2016, he authorized an exclusive agreement with Deutsche Grammophon, along with his 1st release within the label — Philip Cup: Piano Functions — showing up in January 2017. Ahead of that, Ólafsson got recorded a few of Stravinsky’s single piano music for the label, and he previously released three albums by himself: two single discs and Schubert’s Winterreise with bass Kristinn Sigmundsson.