Gunnsteinn Ólafsson

Gunnsteinn Ólafsson (b 1962) studied composition at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and orchestral conducting and music theory at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany. In 1994 Olafsson gained second prize at the Young Scandinavian Conductors Competition in Bergen, Norway. He is the conductor of the University Choir and the Iceland Youth Symphony Orchestra and has as well conducted the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the CAPUT Chamber Orchestra and at the Icelandic Opera. He has conducted the Icelandic premieres of some of the key works of Monteverdi and Purcell. His children's opera Marguerite (Baldursbrá), was performed in Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavík in 2015. Gunnsteinn Ólafsson teaches orchestral conducting, choir conducting and theory at the Iceland University of the Arts and the Reykjavík Music College. Ólafsson is the artistic director of the Folk Music Festival of Siglufjörður and the chairman of the Folk Music Center in Siglufjörður.