Víkingur Ólafsson
About this Artist
Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has captured the public and critical imagination with profound musicianship and visionary programs. He is one of the most sought-after artists of today; his recordings for Deutsche Grammophon have led to almost 1 billion streams and garnered numerous awards, including BBC Music Magazine Album of the Year and Opus Klassik Solo Recording of the Year (twice). Other notable honors include the Rolf Schock Music Prize, Gramophone’s Artist of the Year, and Order of the Falcon (Iceland’s order of chivalry), as well as the Icelandic Export Award, given by the president of Iceland.
In a landmark move, Ólafsson 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 will see Ólafsson as Artist-in-Residence with Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, as well as Artist-in-Focus at Vienna Musikverein. He will tour in Europe with The Cleveland Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, perform with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the BBC Proms, and return to the New York Philharmonic. He joins forces with Yuja Wang for a highly anticipated duo recital tour across Europe and North America. In January, he gave the world premiere of John Adams’ After the Fall, a piano concerto written especially for him, with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. In spring 2025, Ólafsson will perform his new piano recital, the last three sonatas of Beethoven, on multiple dates across the US and Europe.
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