Víkingur Ólafsson

Víkingur Ólafsson is one of today’s most popular classical pianists, and an acclaimed interpreter of the music of J.S. Bach, his playing characterised by a liquidity and transparency of tone and evenness of touch. Away from Bach, Ólafsson’s performances of Mozart, Brahms, Thomas Adès and works by French composers have been met with equal acclaim. Born in 1984 in Reykjavík, Iceland, Ólafsson was taught by his mother before enrolling at the Reykjavík College of Music, then at New York’s Juilliard School where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal. In the same year that he appeared on Dario Marianelli’s soundtrack to 2017’s Winston Churchill biopic, Darkest Hour, Ólafsson made his first recording on Deutsche Grammophon. That collection of pieces by Philip Glass—released to mark the composer’s 80th birthday—and the subsequent album Johann Sebastian Bach (2018) secured Ólafsson’s place as a modern-day great; the latter was named BBC Music Magazine’s Recording of the Year in 2019. Since then, Ólafsson has released no fewer than seven albums. These include 2022’s From Afar featuring works by Brahms, Kurtág, Robert Schumann and others; a recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations; an album of Bach and Beethoven, Opus 109 (2025); and, in 2026, a return to an all-Bach world with Continuum II, following on from the success of the 2024 EP, Continuum. Away from the studio, Ólafsson has given some unusual performances. In 2014 he participated in Swiss artist Roman Signer’s installation Vers la Flamme – A Concert with Interruption, which saw the pianist perform Scriabin’s Vers la Flamme on a miniature floating stage in the middle of Lake Vernago in Italy as a helicopter descended from above, creating powerful turbulence. And during the 2020 lockdowns, he broadcast weekly recitals from Reykjavík’s then-empty concert hall Harpa for BBC Radio 4’s Front Row arts programme.