HIMA FACULTY
INTERMEDIATE AND SENIOR DIVISION
VIOLIN
Ari þór vilhjálmsson
Ari Þór Vilhjálmsson has been Principal Second Violin of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra since 2019. He previously held the same position with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra in Finland. Born in Reykjavík in1981, he also worked with the Iceland Symphony for a number of years, and appeared as guest concertmaster with orchestras in Toulouse and Stockholm.
Ari taught at the Reykjavik College of Music from 2008-2014 and many of his former students are recent graduates from conservatories abroad. He has taught at the Sibelius Academy and continues to work with students in Israel and Iceland. Ari’s teachers include Mary Campbell, Guðný Guðmundsdóttir, Rachel Barton Pine, Sibbi Bernhardsson and Almita and Roland Vamos.
Auður hafsteinsdóttir
One of Iceland’s leading performers and violin teachers, Auður is a graduate of the Reykjavík College of Music, the New England Conservatory and the University of Minnesota, where she received her Master’s degree as a student of the renowned Almita and Roland Vamos. Auður has appeared both as soloist and chamber musician in the U.S., Canada, Europe, China and Japan.
Auður has received many awards for her playing, she is a founding member of Trio Nordica and the Caput Ensemble. Her playing is featured on numerous labels such as Tutl, GM records and Naxos. Auður is a prominent teacher, many of her students have won competitions and gone on to study at respected conservatories abroad.
Elfa rún kristinsdóttir
Elfa Rún Kristinsdóttir graduated from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 2003 and completed further studies in Freiburg and Leipzig. She rose to international acclaim after winning First Prize at the Johann Sebastian Bach competition in 2006. Elfa Rún was a member and concertmaster of the Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop in Berlin from 2006-2014 and regularly appears as concertmaster or soloist with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. She has appeared as soloist with the Iceland Symphony, Hamburger Symphoniker and Les Siècles and worked with conductors such as Andre de Ridder, Paul McCreesh and François-Xavier Roth. She has released five albums; the latest of which, featuring sonatas by Biber and Schmelzer, was nominated to the Iceland 2021 Music Awards and to the German Preis der deutsche Schallplattenkritik 2020 award. Elfa Rún is Artistic Director of Barokkbandið Brák.
Guðný Guðmundsdóttir
Guðný Guðmundsdóttir was concertmaster of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra from 1974-2010. In over four decades of teaching, she has taught most of Iceland’s leading violinists at the Reykjavík College of Music and Iceland Arts University. Guðný started performing at the age of 7 and has played solo and chamber music concerts across the all around the world. She travels every year to teach at summer music festivals and teaches masterclasses at conservatories in the U.S. and Europe.
Guðný has recorded several albums and was awarded the Order of the Falcon in 1989 for her outstanding work in the field of music. After completing studies in Iceland her teachers included Caroll Glenn at Eastman and Dorothy DeLay at Juilliard School of Music.
SIF MARGRÉT TULINIUS
Sif was the Associate Concertmaster of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra from 2000 - 2016 and has performed extensivly throughout Europe with ensembles such as the Potsdamer Kammerakademie and the Berlin Philharmonic. She is an active performer of chamber music and of new music, and has premiered many works by Icelandic composers that have been written for her.
After graudating from the Reykjavik College of Music in 1991, she went on to complete a Master of Music degree in the U.S. Her teachers included Guðný Guðmundsdóttir, Almita and Roland Vamos, Joyce Robbins and Joel Smirnoff. She currently resides in Iceland where she teaches at the Kópavogur music school and Iceland University of the Arts.
Sibbi
bernharðsson
Sibbi Bernhardsson is a professor of Violin at Oberlin Conservatory. He was previously a member of the Pacifica String Quartet for 17 years, playing more than 90 concerts a year in leading concert halls around the world. He received numerous honors with the quartet, including a Grammy Award.
Sibbi has collaborated with artists such as Menahem Pressler, Yo-Yo Ma, Leon Fleisher and the Emerson String Quartet. He gives regular concerts and masterclasses across the U.S., and in Europe and Asia. His teachers include Guðný Guðmundsdóttir, Almita and Roland Vamos, Matias Tacke and Shmuel Ashkenasi.
Wei Lin sigurgeirsson
Wei Lin is the founder and Chairman of the Lin Yao Ji Music Foundation, and Lin Yao Ji Research Center for Violin Pedagogy in China. She also founded and chaired the Harpa International Music Academy in Iceland and Atlanta Festival Academy in Atlanta, Georgia the United States. She has organised and given masterclasses and concerts in Beijing, Hong Kong and Reykjavík with internationally renowned musicians and rising young stars. and been a juror at numerous international competitions and festivals.
Wei LIn began studying the violin with her father, Professor Lin Yao-Ji at the age of seven, and the piano with her mother, Professor Hu Shi-Xi at the age of eight. She commenced her formal music training at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing where she continued studying the violin with Lin Yao-Ji. After receiving a grant from the city of London she finished her her studies at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She has been a member of Iceland Symphony Orchestra since 1990 and also served as concertmaster of the Hong Kong Pan Asia Symphony Orchestra and played with Baltimore Symphony and Washington Chamber Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC. She has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and various ensembles in Europe, the United States and Asia.
Wei Lin has been a violin teacher at the Reykjavik College of Music, the Purcell School of Music in London and the Yip Academy in Hong Kong. She was her late father’s Prof. Lin Yao Ji’s teaching assistant, intermittently from 1996-2008. She has taught and given masterclasses in the Nordics, United States and China. She has given talks about her father’s teaching concept and music life and has been writing violin method materials in his style, which will be published at the end of 2024.
Judith ingólfsson
Judith Ingolfsson is a professor at the Peabody Institute at John Hopkins University in Baltimore.
She was born in Reykjavík and started studying the violin at the age of three. She was only eight years old when she recorded as a soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and a few weeks later made her first appearance on the international stage. At the age of fourteen, she moved to the United States and entered the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, where Jascha Brodsky was her teacher. Judith then earned her Master's Degree and Artists Diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with David Cerone and Donald Weilerstein.
Judith has both won music competitions, been artist in residence and given concerts and recitals in many of the world's major concert halls. She has performed both as a soloist, in chamber ensembles and as a soloist with orchestras. Judith has also released a number of albums. She has been the artistic director of music series and festivals, including the French Aigues-Vives en Musiques academy and music festival, where she is the artistic director together with her husband, the renowned pianist Vladimir Stoupel.
Judith plays a Lorenzo Guadagnini violin, made in 1750, and a viola, made by Yair Hod Fainas.
VIOLA
ÁSDÍS VALDIMARSDÓTTIR
Ásdís is professor of viola and chamber music at the Royal Conservatory The Hague. A native of Iceland, her musical education took her to the Juilliard School and later to Germany. She served as Principal Viola of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and was a member of the Miami, Chilingirian and Utrecht string quartets.
Ásdís has made many recordings, including the complete Beethoven string trios with the Brunsvik String Trio.
Her most recent album, "Stolen Schubert" came out in 2022 and includes her own transcriptions for viola of works by Schubert.
Ásdís is a qualified Body Mapping Educator; a method for preventing playing related injuries and solving them.
Þórunn Ósk Marinósdóttir
Þórunn Ósk Marínósdóttir is the Principal Vola of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. She studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels with Ervin Schiffer. Þórunn has performed as a soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra, Prima la Musica and Sumida Triphony hall Orchestra in Tokyo.
Þórunn teaches viola and chamber music at the Reykjavík College of Music and Iceland Academy of the Arts. She is an active chamber musician, has been a part of many chamber music recordings and is a regular guest at chamber music festivals in Iceland. She is a founding member of the Siggi String Quartet which has been active since 2012 and has premiered many new Icelandic works.
CELLO
michael (Mick) sterling
Michael (Mick) Stirling studied the cello at the Guildhall School of Music with Leonard Stehn and Raphael Wallfisch. He continued his studies at the Banff Centre, Canada and with Lawrence Lesser at the New England Conservatory in Boston, USA. Other important mentors were David Takeno, Hans Keller, Louis Krasner, Eugene Lehner, Colin Carr and Bernard Greenhouse. Michael was the cellist of the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, Germany and a member of the Raphael Ensemble in London and recorded numerous records for Hyperion. He played with the Brindisi Quartet in London as well as various chamber music groups and performed as guest principle cellist with various orchestras including: The Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, and The Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Mick moved to Amsterdam in 2004 and became first principle cellist of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in the Netherlands. He played regularly with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe for many years. Michael is also a member of Nieuw Amsterdams Peil, The Brunsvik String Trio and plays a great deal of chamber music in general. He recorded the cello concerto by Hindemith (Kammermusik no. 3) for RCA with Marcus Stenz and the Ensemble Modern which won the German Critic's Prize. His ensemble the Brunsvik String Trio recorded the complete string trios of Beethoven on CD for Zefir records and Mozart’s ‘Divertimento’.
Mick’s cello is a beautiful example of the London maker Joseph Hill from 1770.
Mick has been on the cello faculty of the Amsterdam Conservatory since 2014.
Sigurgeir Agnarsson
Sigurgeir Agnarsson is principal cellist of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. He graduated from the Reykjavik College of Music in 1995 and continued his studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston with David Wells and Laurence Lesser and at the Hochschule für Musik in Düsseldorf with Prof. Johannes Goritzki.
Sigurgeir is head of the string department at the Reykjavik College of Music. He has appeared as a soloist with ensembles such as the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Bochumer Symphoniker and the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra and appears regularly as a chamber musician and recitalist in Iceland and abroad. He has recorded for the Icelandic Broadcasting Service and the Naxos label. Sigurgeir is one of the founders of the Harpa International Music Academy.
SIGURÐUR BJARKI GUNNARSSON
Sigurður Bjarki teaches cello and chamber music at the Iceland University of the Arts and has been a member of the Iceland Symphony since 2002. He has appeared as soloist with the Iceland Symphony and Reykjavik Chamber Orchestra and is a founding member of the Siggi String Quartet.
Sigurður graduated from the Reykjavik College of Music in 1995 and pursued further studies at the Manhattan School of Music with David Soyer and at the Juilliard School with Harvey Shapiro. He regularly performs in chamber music recitals in Iceland and abroad.
PIANISTS
NÍNA MARGRÉT GRÍMSDÓTTIR
Pianist dr. Nína Margrét Grímsdóttir is one of Iceland ́s most established classical performers and recording artist. She has performed in Europe, USA, Canada, Japan and China, including concertos with the Royal Chamber Orchestra in Tokyo, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra, Iceland Amateur Symphony Orchestra and the Reykjavik Wind Quintet. She has recorded five CDs for Naxos, BIS, Acte Préalable and Skref. Her CDs and concerts have received excellent reviews in Gramophone Awards Issue, BBC Music Magazine, Glasgow Herald, Crescendo-Magazine, Xi ́an Evening News and High Fidelity. She holds a D.M.A. performance degree from the City University of New York. Her current teaching positions include Sigursveins Music School where she is departmental chair of the advanced department and Kopavogur Music School where her piano students are regular winners of top prizes in local and international competitions. Prior positions and guest professorship include the Iceland Academy of the Arts, Reykjavik Music School, University of Agder and University of Karlstad.
Þóra kristín gunnarsdóttir
Þóra Kristín Gunnarsdóttir has performed at music festivals and concerts all over Switzerland and Iceland. In Iceland, she has performed at various recitals and chamber music concerts and festivals e.g. music festivals Reykholt Chamber Music Festival and Seigla Chamber Music Festival. She works mainly with accompaniment and chamber music, but in 2021 she also performed as a soloist with ZHdK Strings in Switzerland and in Harpa in Reykjavík, as well as taking part in a Beethoven concert series in Salnum in Kópavogur. In Switzerland, she has performed, e.g. at the music festival Chesa Planta Musiktage and at a concert organized by Liedrezital Zürich. For the past four summers, she has been an accompanist in masterclass courses for singers in France. Þóra began her music studies in Akureyri with Dýrleifa Bjarnadóttir and later studied with Peter Máté at the Music School in Reykjavík. She completed a master's degree in piano teaching and piano performance with a minor in chamber music from the Lucerne University of Music in 2017. In 2020, she completed a second master's degree in chamber music and accompaniment from the Zurich University of the Arts, where her main teacher was pianist Friedemann Rieger. She also attended regular classes there with, among others, Christoph Berner and Eckart Heiligers. She has attended master class courses at, among others Thomas Hampson, Joseph Breinl and Ewa Kupiec. Þóra works as an accompanist at the High School of Music and the Hafnarfjörður Conservatory.
JUNIOR DIVISION
VIOLIN
Lilja Hjaltadóttir
Lilja Hjaltadóttir is Director of HIMA’s Junior Division. Assistant principal of the Allegro Suzuki School in Reykjavík, Lilja is the most experienced Suzuki teacher in Iceland. She graduated from the Reykjavík College of Music and completed a master’s degree from Souther Illinois University in Edwardsville in 1981. Her main teacher was John Kendall, the leading Suzuki pedagogue in the U.S.
Lilja trains Suzuki teachers in Iceland and abroad, and travels regularly to teach all over Europe.
aðalheiður matthíasdóttir
Aðalheiður is a Suzuki teacher and has taught many students over the years. She teaches at Sigursvein's Music School in Reykjavík, where there is a very flourishing string practice and is the head of the Suzuki and string department there. In addition, she has taught many courses, e.g. organized by HIMA and the Icelandic Suzuki Association.
Gróa Margrét Valdimarsdóttir
A prolific chamber and orchestral musician, Gróa holds a violin position with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Brák Baroque Orchestra, and has performed with ensembles including the Iceland Opera Orchestra, North Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Connecticut Virtuosi, and has served as concertmaster of The Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra. Gróa has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras, including the Iceland Youth Orchestra, University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and the Foot in the Door ensemble—the last with which she premiered Benjamin Park’s violin concerto, Huldufólk.
As a dedicated teacher and leader, Gróa is a board member for The Icelandic Chamber Music Festival and is on faculty at the Allegro Suzuki Music School and Akranes Music School. Honors include the Young Artist of Kópavogur award, the Landsbanki award, and, during her graduate years, a prestigious 20/20 honors chamber position at the Hartt School. Her former teachers include Anton Miller, Sibbi Bernhardsson, Auður Hafsteinsdottir, Margrét Kristjánsdóttir, and Lin Wei.
helga steinunn torfadóttir
Helga Steinunn began playing the violin at the age of 9 and studied with Lilja Hjaltadóttir and Guðný Guðmundsdóttir. She attended the Royal Danish Academy of Music from 1995-1998 as a student of Elisabeth Zeuthen Schneider. She trained as a Suzuki teacher with Tove Detreköy, Lilja Hjaltadóttir and Jaenne Janssens. Helga teaches at the Allegro Suzuki school and the Reykjavík Suzuki school.
Kristín björg ragnarsdóttir
Kristín Björg is a violin teacher at Garðabær's Music School and is also the director of the school's string ensemble. She teaches both young children and advanced students and is fully trained in the Suzuki method. She has been active in Icelandic music and plays regularly with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Icelandic Opera Orchestra.
Kristín started playing the violin at the age of 8 and studied with Hlíf Sigurjónsdóttir and Guðnýja Guðmundsdóttir. She then went to graduate school in New York with Gerald Beal and Masao Kawasaki. She completed her master's degree in 2004 and then moved to Belgium, where she worked, among other things. with Die Filharmonie Antwerpen.
CELLO
Helga Björg Ágústsdóttir
Cellist Helga Björg Ágústsdóttir began studying at the age of 6 with Pétur Þorvaldsson at the New Music School and completed her final exam from the Music School in Garðabær in 1992, where her teacher was Bryndís Halla Gylfadóttir. She then studied at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam under the guidance of Dmitri Ferschtman and Melissa Phelps. In recent years, she has taught at the Garðabær Music School and New Music School. She has also played with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Icelandic Opera Orchestra, the North Iceland Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the Icelandic Strings.
PIANIST
Guðrún Dalía salómonsdóttir
Guðrún Dalía studied piano at the Conservatory of Music in Reykjavík, the University of Music in Stuttgart and in Paris. She has given numerous concerts, both domestically and abroad, as a soloist and in various instrumental groups, and not least as an accompanist for singers. Guðrún has received numerous grants and awards, including 1st prize in the EPTA piano competition in Salnum. CDs have been released with her playing with songs by Jórunn Viðar and Karl O. Runólfsson. Guðrún Dalía works as an accompanist at Garðabær's Music School.
YOUNG ARTISTS
EMMA GARÐARSDÓTTIR
Emma Garðarsdóttir, born in 1998, started her violin studies in 2001 at Sigursveinn School of Music where she graduated with Auður Hafsteinsdóttir as the main teacher. She did her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with Elisabeth Zeuthen Schneider and Frederik Øland as main teachers. Emma is an active chamber musician who plays first violin in Tríó Sól and has performed with chamber musicians such as the Danish String Quartet, Trio Corelli, and various musicians from the Copenhagen Philharmonic. She is now an academist in Copenhagen Philarmonic’s Lumbye Academy and a substitute in the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra.
ANNA ELÍSABET SIGURÐARDÓTTIR
Anna Elísabet Sigurðardóttir is an Icelandic violist born in 1997 in Reykjavík. She finished her Master’s degree from the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen in 2022 where she studied with Professor Tim Frederiksen and Magda Stevensson. Anna is an active orchestra and chamber music player. She regularly performs with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra as well as playing various chamber music concerts in Iceland and Denmark and teaching. Anna is a member of the Elja Chamber Ensemble, an Icelandic chamber collective dedicated to innovative programming and performance and also performs with other ensembles as a guest, such as the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra, CAPUT, Reykjavík Recording Orchestra and Copenhagen Philharmonic. Anna plays a viola made by Yann Besson in 2011.
HJÖRTUR EGGERTSSON
The Icelandic cellist and conductor Hjörtur Páll Eggertsson was five years old when he started playing the cello. He studied under the guidance of Gunnar Kvaran and Sigurgeir Agnarsson at the Reykjavík College of Music before moving to Copenhagen in 2017, where he continued his studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with Morten Zeuthen and Toke Møldrup. As a cellist, Hjörtur has participated as a chamber musician and soloist in various festivals and engagements around Europe, as well as playing regularly with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Alongside his cello studies in Copenhagen, Hjörtur began studying conducting in the fall of 2020, when he was admitted to the Malko Academy for Young Conductors. He has participated in masterclasses given by Herbert Blomstedt, Fabio Luisi, Nicolás Pasquet and Eva Ollikainen, as well as conducting concerts with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Athelas Sinfonietta and the DR Vokalensemblet. He began his conducting studies with Ed Spanjaard at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in 2023.
