Víkingur Ólafsson (b. 1984, Reykjavík, Iceland) was taught first by his mother, a piano teacher, before studying at the Juilliard School under Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald. He founded the Reykjavík Midsummer Music festival and released early recordings on the independent label Dirrindí before signing an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 2016. His albums for the label include Philip Glass Piano Works (2017), Johann Sebastian Bach (2018), and J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations (2023), which won a 2025 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. He has premiered piano concertos by Icelandic composers and performs regularly with leading international orchestras.

Dubbed ‘Iceland’s Glenn Gould’ by The New York Times, Ólafsson has become one of the most acclaimed and commercially successful pianists of his generation, winning the Gramophone Artist of the Year award (2019) and the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal (2025).

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%ADkingur_%C3%93lafsson