Víkingur Ólafsson
in 2025 he joins forces with Yuja Wang for a highly anticipated two piano recital tour across Europe and North America. When Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson plays, he holds his audiences spellbound. . Add in the thunder, wind and rain of Kaija Saariaho's Ciel d'hiver and the sinuous and creepy Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta by Béla Bartók, brought together by the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Dinis Sousa, and you have a recipe for a very special evening indeed. He devoted his entire 2023/24 season to a world tour of a single work: J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, performing it 88 times to great critical acclaim. The 2024/25 season he will tour in Europe with The Cleveland Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, perform with the Berlin Philharmonic at the BBC Proms and return to the New York Philharmonic.
Víkingur Ólafsson grew up in Reykjavík and started playing the piano at an early age under the tutelage of his mother, Svana Víkingsdóttir, a piano teacher
He studied with Erla Stefánsdóttir and Peter Máté before attending the Juilliard School in New York, earning bachelor's and master's degrees under the supervision of Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald. He also took lessons with Ann Schein.
Ólafsson’s recordings for Deutsche Grammophon have led to almost one billion streams. awarded the Icelandic Export Award, given by the president of Iceland. His flawless technique and virtuosity are the perfect match for Beethoven’s most sublime and grandiose concerto, the Emperor at the Wigmmore Hall in April 2025
Víkingur has won numerous awards, including Album of the Year at the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards for Johann Sebastian Bach,[3] Opus Klassik Award for Solo Instrumental in 2019[4] and 2020,[5] and the Rolf Schock Prize in Music in 2022.[6]
