Víkingur Ólafsson

Young Icelandic Virtuoso

Haskólabió, Concert Hall at May 17

Vikingur Heidar Ólafsson will give his first solo recital in Háskólabió at The Reykjavik Art Festival. His programme will include Bach, Debussy, Ligeti, Bartók and Schumann as well music by Icelandic composers, Sigvaldi Kaldalóns and Emil Thoroddsen, which he has transcribed.

Born into a family of musicians in Iceland in 1984, Víkingur Heidar Ólafsson received his first piano lessons at the age of four from his mother. In 2001, he graduated with a Soloist Diploma from the Reykjavik College of Music  and made his debut with The Iceland Symphony Orchestra, with which he has since appeared annually. Ólafsson has made solo appearances with all Iceland's major orchestras and ensembles. He made his conducting debut directing Mozart's Piano Concerto K.503 from the keyboard at 2006's Reykjavik Art Festival.

In 2008, he earned a Master of Music degree from New York's Juilliard School, where he was taught by Robert McDonald and Jerome Lowenthal. In the spring of that year, he made his New York debut, at Avery Fisher Hall, performing Bartók's 3rd Piano Concerto with the Juilliard Orchestra, directed by Roberto Abbado, as well as giving the US premiere of Icelandic composer Snorri Sigfús Birgisson's Piano Concerto no. 2 with The New Juilliard Ensemble at the Lincoln Center.

A dedicated performer of new music, he aims to commission at least one major work each season. In 2006, he gave the world premiere of Snorri Sigfús Birgisson's Piano Concerto no. 2 with The Caput Ensemble at The Nordic Music Days Festival, in 2007 he performed Ólafur Axelsson's inspired Piano Suite, and for the 2008-9 season he has commissioned two piano concertos from leading Icelandic composers Haukur Tómasson and Daníel Bjarnason.

In 2006, Ólafsson became the youngest recipient of the 'Performer of the Year' prize at The Icelandic Music Awards.

Other honours include The American-Scandinavian Society Cultural Grant, The Birgir Einarson Memorial Award, The Rotary Foundation Cultural Prize, VISA Iceland Cultural Prize and The Icelandic Music Award's Brightest Prospect 2004 prize. In December 2003, Vikingur was chosen by the Mayor of Reykjavík to receive the Gunnar Thoroddsen Memorial Award for his accomplishments.

Highlights of the 2008-9 season include a solo recital tour of China, the premiere of Piano Concerto no. 2 by Daniel Bjarnason (prize winner at the 2008 International Rostrum of Composers in Dublin) with The Iceland Symphony, as well as the recording of a debut solo album in Gewandhaus, Leipzig, due to be released on May 17th 2009, when Ólafsson will give his first solo recital in Háskólabió at The Reykjavik Art Festival.