The Icelandic pianist calls the award his ‘love letter to the UK’ <\/p>
Icelandic pianist V\u00edkingur \u00d3lafsson<\/strong><\/a> has received the 2023 International Nordic Person of the Year Award from CoScan<\/strong><\/a>, the Confederation of Scandinavian Societies in the UK.<\/p>\n The award recognises \u00d3lafsson as \u2018an extraordinary advocate for music across the generations\u2019, and was presented by the Ambassador of Iceland, His Excellency Sturla Sigurj\u00f3nsson, and Alexander Malmaeus, Chairman of CoScan, during a concert at London\u2019s Royal Festival Hall on 28 January 2023, after \u00d3lafsson performed the Schumann Piano Concerto with London Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Chairman of CoScan, Alexander Malmaeus, said: \u2018Iceland might be the country with the smallest population in the Nordic region, but it is bursting with musical talent from which we are all greatly enriched. V\u00edkingur reaches new audiences with diverse musical tastes, and he has an incredible ability to make us listen freshly and gain something new from his every performance. We are thrilled that he has accepted the award.\u2019<\/p>\n V\u00edkingur \u00d3lafsson commented: \u201cThank you so much to CoScan for this award\u2026. which I consider my love letter to the UK. The north is a state of mind above everything else, and so if I have brought Nordic culture to the UK and Ireland, then something has been achieved.\u2019<\/p>\n Previous recipients of CoScan\u2019s International Person of the Year Award include football manager Sven-G\u00f6ran Eriksson, conductor Sakari Oramo<\/strong><\/a>, Finnish racing driver Mika H\u00e4kkinen, and presenter Sandi Toksvig.<\/p>\n V\u00edkingur \u00d3lafsson<\/b> has twice won Album of the Year at the BBC Music Magazine Awards<\/strong><\/a>. His recordings for Deutsche Grammophon \u2013\u00a0Philip Glass Piano Works<\/i>\u00a0(2017),\u00a0Johann Sebastian Bach<\/i>\u00a0(2018),\u00a0Debussy Rameau<\/i>\u00a0(2020) and\u00a0Mozart &\u00a0Contemporaries\u00a0<\/i>(2021) \u2013 have captured the public and critical imagination and led to career streams of over 400 million. \u00d3lafsson\u2019s latest album,\u00a0From Afar<\/i>, was released in October 2022.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <\/body><\/html>\n The Icelandic pianist calls the award his ‘love letter to the UK’ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The Icelandic pianist calls the award his 'love letter to the UK'","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/24115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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