Iceland Symphony Orchestra

The Iceland Symphony Orchestra offers a variety of programs, spanning everything from well-known classics to world premiere performances of new works by Icelandic and international composers. A commitment to performing new Icelandic music has been widely praised and recordings by Deutsche Grammophon, BIS, Chandos, Naxos and Sono Luminus include accolades such MIDEM-awards and Grammy Award nominations for Best Orchestral Performance.

The Iceland Symphony Orchestra has appeared widely throughout Europe and beyond, including performances at the BBC Proms, the Wiener Musikverein, New York’s Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Recent tours include a highly successful visit to Japan with Ashkenazy, pianist Nobu. A year later the orchestra toured Germany and Austria with conductor Daníel Bjarnason and soloists Víkingur Ólafsson and Radovan Vlatković. Now The Iceland Symphony Orchestra returns to the UK in the wake of the great reception it received in 2020 during its first tour, with Yan Pascal Tortelier, Yeol Eum Son and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.

The majority of the orchestra’s concerts are broadcast live on radio by the National Broadcasting Service and one of the orchestra’s concert series is televised live on National TV.

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She has subsequently developed a comprehensive repertoire with a focus on the great German symphonies, and continues to work with the leading Scandinavian orchestras such as the RoyalStockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Turku Philharmonic and the Lahti Symphony. In addition, she is also a frequent guest conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden and has received invitations to lead the Wiener Symphoniker, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Brussels Philharmonic and the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. Ollikainen also recently conducted the Magic Flute for the Royal Swedish Opera and Carmen for the Gothenburg Opera.

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Hough is a regular guest at festivals such as Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, Edinburgh, La Roque-d’Anthéron, Aldeburgh, and the BBC Proms, where he made his 29^th appearance in 2020 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. In June 2020 he returned to Wigmore Hall to give the UK’s first live classical music concert in a major venue since the nationwide lockdown earlier that year. Recital highlights in 2021/22 include a return to London’s Royal Festival Hall as well as Caramoor, Toronto, Tallinn, Gstaad and Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall.

Hough’s extensive discography of around 70 CDs has garnered international awards including the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, several Grammy nominations, and eight Gramophone Awards including Record of the Year and the Gold Disc. Recent releases include Beethoven’s complete piano concertos (with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu), ’The Final Piano Pieces’ of Brahms, a Schumann recital, Chopin’s Complete Nocturnes, Brahms Clarinet Sonatas with Michael Collins, and Elgar’s Violin Sonata with Renaud Capuçon (for Warner Classics). His award-winning iPad app The Liszt Sonata was released by Touch Press in 2013.

As a composer Hough’s String Quartet No.1 Les Six Rencontres, commissioned for the Takács Quartet, will receive its world premiere by them in Costa Mesa, California in December 2021 followed by a recording for Hyperion. He has written the commissioned work for the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, to be performed by all 30 competitors in May/June 2022 He has been commissioned by Musée du Louvre, London’s National Gallery, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, the Genesis Foundation, Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, the Cliburn Foundation, Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi and the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. His music is published by Josef Weinberger Ltd.

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