Performers & composers

Guðrún Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir

The Icelandic mezzo-soprano Guðrún Ólafsdóttir studied at the Reykjavík College of Music under professor Ruth Magnússon, before moving to London, where she completed a Master of Music degree in 2001 and the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2003, studying with professor Laura Sarti. She then furthered her studies with mezzo Alicia Nafé in Madrid. Ólafsdóttir has won prizes in six international singing competitions, including the Kathleen Ferrier Song Prize at the Wigmore Hall and the Joaquín Rodrigo Prize in Madrid.

Ólafsdóttir has sung Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte, Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Joacim in Handel's Susanna, Arbace in Arne’s Artaxerxes, Magdelone in Nielsen’s Maskarade and Lazuli in Chabrier's L'étoile in the United Kingdom. In Iceland she has performed Prince Orlowsky in J. Strauss' Die Fledermaus and Sesto in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito.

Ólafsdóttir performs regularly in recital, with piano, guitar, chamber ensembles or orchestras. She has offered world premières of new works by composers of different nationalities, some of which have been composed especially for her. She has given recitals in Iceland, England, Scotland, Wales, Luxembourg, the Faroe Islands, Bulgaria, Malta, Finland, Sweden, Italy and Spain. She has performed at the Harrogate International Festival, the Reykjavík Arts Festival, at the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, the Bach Ensemble, the Ísafold Chamber Orchestra, the orchestra Schola Camerata, Sonor Ensemble, the Symphony Orchestra of La Mancha and the Orchestra of the Province of Madrid in Spain.

Among her recordings are the oratorio A Child is Born by John Speight with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, a selection of songs by Icelandic composer Sigvaldi Kaldalóns with pianist Jónas Ingimundarson, Vocalise by Hjálmar H. Ragnarsson for the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra and various recordings for the Icelandic National Radio and the BBC. Her first solo album, which includes the song cycles Frauenliebe und -Leben by Schumann and Haugtussa by Grieg with pianist Víkingur H. Ólafsson, will be released in autumn 2006.