Ísak Ríkharðsson

Ísak Ríkharðsson, born in 1993 in Reykjavík, Iceland, began his violin studies three years old at the Allegro Suzuki Music School. He started taking piano lessons at the age of seven and has continued studying it as a second instrument. After finishing his studies at the Reykjavík Conservatory in 2008 he went on to study with Guðný Guðmundsdóttir at The Iceland Academy of Arts. Ísak currently studies towards a soloist diploma at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) in the class of Prof. Rudolf Koelman after having finished a BA and MA degrees from the same school. He has played with the school chamber orchestra ZHdK Strings in their concerts in Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, Thailand and Iceland both as a member and a soloist. He has also participated in the Swedish National Orchestra Academy (SNOA) at the Gothenburg Academy of the Arts as well as being a substitute in the Iceland Symphony, Collegium Novum Zürich and Sinfonieorchester Liechtenstein under the baton of conductors such as James Gaffigan, Osmo Vänskä, Johannes Kalitzke, Matthew Halls, Eivind Aadland, Ilan Volkov and Petri Sakari. Ísak has lead the 2nd violin section of Winterthurer Symphoniker since 2015. He is also a member of the Ever Present Orchestra, which specializes in the performance of the works of Alvin Lucier. Ísak has attended lessons and master courses in Iceland, USA, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Spain with Phillipe Graffin, Lara Lev, Linda Wang, Bayla Keyes, Alex Kerr, Thomas Zehetmair, Julia Fischer, Oleh Krysa and Sigurbjörn Bernharðsson amongst others. In 2012 Ísak won the Iceland Symphony's Young Soloist Competition and performed Prokofiev's 2nd concerto with the symphony. He also received the 2017 Young Musicians Grant of the Rotary Club in Iceland. From 2003 - 2005 Ísak performed as a boy soprano singing solo with many choirs and in the Icelandic Opera's production of Britten's The Turn of the Screw which was awarded the Icelandic Music Award in 2005.