Composers

Played by the best orchestras, ensembles and soloists, his music reflects a powerful sense of drama. The variety of rhythms and sounds, the combination of lyrical and percussive moments, give to his compositions a unique intensity.

Finnur Karlsson has been called “with out a doubt one of the most noteworthy composers of his generation” and his music has been described as “honest and sincere” and “…captivatingly beautiful”.

Atli Ingólfsson was born in Iceland on August 21, 1962. He received his first music education in the native town of Njardvik, studying guitar and harmony, and had already composed a couple of small pieces before moving to Reykjavík where he entered the theory and composition department o...

Ingibjörg Ýr is a composer from Iceland. She studied at the Iceland Academy of the Arts with Hróðmar I. Sigurbjörnsson and Anna Thorvaldsdottir and graduated with a BA in 2016. She then did an internship with Anna Thorvaldsdottir in Britain the following winter. Ingibjörg Ýr has wor...

Halldór Smárason was born in Iceland in 1989. He completed an Advanced Level Piano Examination in the spring of 2009 concurrently with his college graduation, and holds a B.A.-degree in composition from the Iceland Academy of the Arts and an M.M.-degree in classical composition from the ...

Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson (b.1938) studied piano at the Reykjavík College of Music, then continued his education in the United States. He attended Hamline University, Minnesote, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, completing a master´s degree in composition in 1961 under t...

Leifur Þórarinsson was born in Reykjavík on 13 August 1934, and died on 24 April 1998 at the age of only 63. He began violin studies with Þorvaldur Steingrímsson at an early age, progressing to the Reykjavík College of Music, where he studied with Björn Ólafsson. He also studied th...

Páll P. Pálsson was born in Graz, Austria. He began his musical studies at the Conservatory in Graz with trumpet, violin, piano, composition and later on conducting. He joined the trumpet section of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Graz at the age of 17. In 1948 he was offered the princi...

Gísli Jóhann Grétarsson is a composer and conductor living in Oslo, Norway, and working in the field of contemporary music making and composing. With nature as inspiration and using his adventure like narrative style as the foundation, he paints pictures with music. He has for the la...