Iceland Symphony Orchestra

The national orchestra of Iceland and a cornerstone of the country’s cultural landscape, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra (Sinfóníuhljómsveit Íslands) makes its home in the award-winning concert hall Harpa, in Reykjavík. It is widely praised for its performances and recordings and each year presents a full season of subscription concerts, school and family concerts, and concerts devoted to new music. Eva Ollikainen is its Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, a position previously held by such distinguished conductors as Osmo Vänskä, Petri Sakari, Jean-Pierre Jacquillat, Ilan Volkov, and Yan Pascal Tortelier. Artists in Association with the orchestra are the composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir and the composer and conductor Daníel Bjarnason. At the beginning of the 2026 / 27 season, Barbara Hannigan will assume the role of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director.

The Orchestra offers a variety of programmes, spanning everything from well-known classics to world première performances of new works by Icelandic and foreign composers. A commitment to performing new Icelandic music has been widely praised and recordings on a variety of international labels have received accolades such as MIDEM awards and Grammy Award nominations for Best Orchestral Performance. The majority of the Orchestra’s concerts are broadcast live on radio by the RÚV, the National Broadcasting Service, and selected concerts are televised on national TV. The Iceland Symphony Orchestra has appeared widely throughout Europe and beyond, giving performances at the BBC Proms, Wiener Musikverein, Carnegie Hall, New York, and Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, among others.