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Víkingur Ólafsson

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Víkingur Ólafsson is an Icelandic pianist, born in 1984. He grew up in Reykjavik and had his first piano lessons from his mother, who was a piano teacher. Later he studied at the Juilliard School in New York. In 2011 he was the soloist at the opening concert of the Harpa concert hall in Reykjavik, playing Grieg's piano concerto under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy. He has played with major orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, the New York Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and has given six piano concertos by Icelandic composers their premieres.

Music and breakthrough

His first albums, including Debut (2009) and Winterreise (2012), were released on his own label Dirrindí. In 2016 he signed to Deutsche Grammophon. His album Philip Glass Piano Works (2017) brought him a great deal of attention, and The New York Times called him Iceland's Glenn Gould. The next album, Johann Sebastian Bach (2018), won, among other awards, BBC Music Magazine's Album of the Year, and in 2019 he became Gramophone's Artist of the Year. Debussy • Rameau (2020), Mozart & Contemporaries (2021) and Opus 109 (2025) followed. He also made Bach Reworks, with arrangements of Bach by, among others, Ben Frost.

Influence

In 2023 he began a world tour to play a single work, Bach's Goldberg Variations, 88 times. The recording of it won a Grammy in 2025. He also collaborated with Philip Glass and Björk. He shows how far a classical pianist can reach a new audience with old and new music.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to the aria with which his recording of the Goldberg Variations begins and notice how calmly and evenly he plays. What changes in the next variation?

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists