One of the most sought-after artists of today, Ólafsson’s recordings for Deutsche Grammophon have led to almost one billion streams and garnered numerous awards, including BBC Music Magazine Album of the Year and Opus Klassik Solo Recording of the Year (twice). Other notable honours include Rolf Schock Music Prize, Gramophone’s Artist of the Year, Order of the Falcon (Iceland’s order of chivalry) as well as the Icelandic Export Award, given by the president of Iceland.

In a landmark move, Ólafsson devoted his entire 2023/24 season to a world tour of a single work: J.S.Bach’s Goldberg Variations, performing it 88 times to great critical acclaim. The 2024/25 season will see Ólafsson as Artist-in-Residence with Tonhalle Zürich and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, as well as Artist-in-Focus at Vienna Musikverein. He will tour in Europe with The Cleveland Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, perform with the Berlin Philharmonic at the BBC Proms and return to the New York Philharmonic. He joins forces with Yuja Wang for a highly anticipated two piano recital tour across Europe and North America and, in January 2025, will give the world premiere of John Adams’ After the Fall with San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, a piano concerto written especially for him. In spring 2025 Ólafsson will perform his new piano recital, the last three sonatas of Beethoven in multiple dates across the US and Europe.