Welcome to our Interesting Icelander series for 2025, with a focus on Icelandic Art and Culture. Our June profile explores the life and legacy of Vikingur Heiðar Olafsson (Feb 1984–).
By Doreen (Borgfjord) McFarlane
To start, let me say that you want to be a cousin of this young man, no matter how many times removed. He has been described as “breathtakingly brilliant.”1 Check out his IR number (I490968) and see if you’re related!
Vikingur Heiðar Olafsson was raised in Reykjavík and, as a young child, attentively listened to his mother teaching piano. It is said he played piano before he spoke. His piano teachers were first his mother, Svana Víkingsdóttir, and later Erla Stefánsdóttir and Peter Máté. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Julliard in New York.
Vikingur has performed with major orchestras in Europe and America, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, and Santa Cecilia. In the 2019–20 season, he performed the French première of John Adams's Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and performed it with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, both with Adams conducting. In the same season, Víkingur was artist-in-residence at the Konzerthaus Berlin, with fourteen performances over eleven different projects, playing concertos by Adès, Robert Schumann, Daníel Bjarnason, and Mozart, two solo recitals, and chamber programs with Martin Fröst and Florian Boesch.
Víkingur appreciates and enjoys being an Icelander. In 2011, he was the soloist in the opening concert for Harpa in Reykjavík, playing Edvard Grieg's piano concerto with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ashkenazy. He has premiered six piano concertos by Icelandic composers—including Snorri Sigfús Birgisson, Daníel Bjarnason, Haukur Tómasson, and Þórður Magnússon - as well as solo and chamber works by Atli Ingólfsson, Mark Simpson, and Mark-Anthony Turnage. He has been part of collaborative performances with Philip Glass (in Reykjavík, Gothenburg, and London) and with well known singer, Björk, (on the TV program Átta raddir for Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.)
He made his Toronto, Canada debut performing folk songs from Iceland and paying tribute to one of his great inspirations, legendary Toronto pianist Glenn Gould, by playing Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988. In 2023, Víkingur began a world tour to play this one single work, Bach's Goldberg Variations, 88 times. His recording of the performance was released by Deutsche Grammophon on 6 October 2023.
He was named Artist of the Year at the Gramophone Awards in 2019. His album, Johann Sebastian Bach, on Deutsche Grammophon won Best Instrumental Album and Album of the Year at the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards. Víkingur won Album of the Year at the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards for Johann Sebastian Bach, Opus Klassik Award for Solo Instrumental in 2019 and 2020, and the Rolf Schock Prize in Music in 2022. Víkingur's album Philip Glass Piano Works saw him named "Iceland's Glenn Gould" by the New York Times, and a "breathtakingly brilliant pianist" by Gramophone; Le Monde heralded his "volcanic temperament, great virtuosity, taste for challenges".
Víkingur has released three albums on his record label, Dirrindí:
2009 – Debut, featuring Brahms's 7 Fantasies Op. 116 and 16 Waltzes as well as Beethoven's Eroica Variations.
2011 – Chopin-Bach, featuring Chopin's preludes and two of Bach's partitas.
2012 – Winterreise, featuring Schubert's Winterreise with Icelandic operatic bass singer Kristinn Sigmundsson (CD and DVD), which won Classical Album of the Year at the 2012 Icelandic Music Awards.
In 2016, Víkingur signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon:
2017 Philip Glass – Piano Works, featuring Philip Glass's Études, "Opening" from Glassworks, and a rework of Glassworks by Christian Badzura
2018 Johann Sebastian Bach, featuring Bach's works for keyboard solo. The album won multiple awards, including BBC Music Magazine's Album of the Year
2021 Reflections featuring Hania Rani, Balmorhea, and Hugar & Helgi Jonsson
2021 Mozart & Contemporaries
2022 From Afar
2024 J.S. Bach: Continuum
He also recorded the soundtrack of Darkest Hour, a film directed by Joe Wright, and released Bach Reworks, featuring six 'remixed' works by J. S. Bach.
As one might expect, Iceland is very proud of this incredibly talented young man and has awarded him the coveted Order of the Falcon. If he comes to your city, be sure to attend his concert.
Editor's note: Breaking news! Víkingur won a 2025 Grammy in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo for his interpretation of the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach.2
Sources:
1 “Víkingur Heiðar Ólafsson.” In Iceland Symphony Orchestra [website]. Retrieved from https://en.sinfonia.is/concerts-tickets/artists/vikingur-heidar-olafsson-pianist
Víkingur Ólafsson [website]. Retrieved from https://www.vikingurolafsson.com/
Víkingur Ólafsson in Wikipedia [website]. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%ADkingur_%C3%93lafsson
Fontaine, Andie Sophia. (03 Feb 2025). "Víkingur Heiðar Wins Grammy" in Iceland Review [website]. Retrieved from https://www.icelandreview.com/news/vikingur-heidar-wins-grammy/