Víkingur Heiðar Ólafsson

Víkingur Heiðar Ólafsson
Photographer
Ari Magg
Víkingur Heiðar Ólafsson is one of the 13 artists nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize 2017.

“Few musicians match Ólafsson for creative flair” – BBC Music Magazine.

Pioneering Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson is equally at home performing concertos with leading orchestras and conductors, curating music festivals (as artistic director of Sweden’s Vinterfest and Reykjavík Midsummer Music), talking about music on TV and radio, working with living composers (commissioning and premiering six Icelandic piano concertos, most recently Haukur Tómasson’s Piano Concerto no. 2 at Elbphilharmonie with Esa-Pekka Salonen) and in the recording studio.

In January 2017, he released his fourth album, and his first for Deutsche Grammophon – an interpretation of piano pieces by Philip Glass, a collaborator since 2014. Reviewing the album, Le Monde praised Ólafsson’s “volcanic temperament, great virtuosity and taste for challenges”, while Bachtrack described him as “a daring and unique artist”.