Víkingur Ólafsson
Víkingur Ólafsson (born 14 February 1984) is an Icelandic pianist. He has performed with leading 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, and with such conductors as Thomas Adès, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Santtu-Matias Rouvali.
Víkingur has won numerous awards, including Album of the Year at the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards for Johann Sebastian Bach, the Opus Klassik Award for Solo Instrumental in 2019 and 2020, Gramophone magazine's Artist of the Year award in 2019, the Rolf Schock Prize in Music in 2022, the 2022 Icelandic Export Award, Musical America's Instrumentalist of the Year award in 2025, the 2025 Order of the Falcon, the 2025 GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, the 2025 Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, and the 2025 Nordic Council Music Prize.
His 2017 album, Philip Glass Piano Works, saw him described as "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".
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