Steinunn Arnbjörg Stefánsdóttir

Steinunn Arnbjörg Stefánsdóttir studied music at the music schools of Akureyri and Reykjavík, graduating with a soloist diploma in cello in the spring of 2000. She then moved to France, where she specialized in baroque music and graduated from the Conservatoire de Paris as a baroque cellist in 2006. Her cello teachers included Haukur Hannesson, Gunnar Kvaran, Michel Strauss, Bruno Cocset and Christophe Coin.

From 2006 to 2020, Steinunn performed with many of France’s leading baroque ensembles. She also performs with Icelandic baroque and contemporary music groups, including Nordic Affect, Brák, Tindra and the International Baroque Orchestra in Hallgrímskirkja.

Steinunn is the founder of the Baroque and indie-pop group Corpo di Strumenti / SÜSSER TROST / (N)ICEGIRLS and a founding member of the folk-music experimental ensemble Gadus Morhua Ensemble. Steinunn is a poet, composer, and songwriter. She has composed works for herself, chamber ensembles, singers and solo performers. She has published four poetry collections, released the album Ljúfa huggun with SÜSSER TROST featuring her own songs and poems, and the album Peysur og Parruk with Gadus Morhua Ensemble. Steinunn is the driving force behind TÓLF TÓNA KORTÉRIÐ, an experimental music platform in North Iceland based at the Akureyri Art Museum. A great number of new compositions, both by Steinunn and many other composers, have originated within that project.

She is principal cellist of the North Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Steinunn also teaches at Tónlistarskólinn á Akureyri, where she serves as head of the classical music department.