Icelandic pianist Víkingur Heiðar Ólafsson won the coveted Artist of the Year award at the Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2019 last night, RÚV reports.
Gramophone is a UK based classical music publication and their awards have been referred to as the ‘Oscars of classical music’. Víkingur accepted the prestigious prize in person during the awards ceremony, which took place at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in central London. The publication described Víkingur as having the gift of “making something familiar feel entirely his own, drawing you into a world where no other interpretation seems possible”.
Víkingur is a rising star in the classical music world. In 2017, he signed with Deutsche Grammophon and has put out a few well received releases on the classical label, most notably two albums featuring his renditions of works by Philip Glass and Johann Sebastian Bach, respectively. Earlier this year he won the Album of the Year award and Instrumental Album of the Year award at the BBC Music Magazine awards, as well as the Opus Klassik award for best piano album, all for his album of Bach renditions.
