Egill Ólafsson is a freelance artist of a versatility rarely met with.He is well known to the icelandic and international audience as an actor, singer and composer in the fields of pop, jazz and classical music.
He has studied singing and composition at The Reykjavík Conservatory and has taken master classes with Per Raben, Jukka Linkola, Pierre Dörge, Jo Estill, Oren Brown and Thorsten Föllinger, just to mention a few.
Egill has worked with Icelands most popular and known bands throughout the years, like "Studmenn", "The Icelandic Hobgoblins" (Thursaflokkurinn) or "Spilverk Thjodanna", both as a songwriter and frontman.
His songwriters output contains four musicals, music for eight films, six plays, two ballets, four albums of solo music, and two albums of arrangements of Icelandic folk music.
As an actor he has apeared in over thirty feature films, mostly in leading roles as well as in several TV-films. He has also been as a principal in many theatre plays and musicals.
Recently he was Peachum at the critically acclaimed Icelandic National Theatre Production of the "Threepenny Opera". He also was Fred Graham in "Kiss Me Kate" at the City Theatre in Reykjavik, Peron in "Evita" and Escamillo in "Carmen Negra" for The Icelandic Opera and Sky Masterson in "Guys And Dolls". He also played Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables" , where he joined the 10th anniversary concert of Les Mis at the Royal Albert Hall in 1996.
His feature film "Med allt á hreinu" is still the most successful movie in the history of Iceland. He was amongst many others also part of the movie "Children of Nature", which was nominated for the Academy Award, "Ahead of Times", Iceland´s entry for the Oscars in 2005 and "Der Gartenkrieg", a German feature film production still shown regularly on TV.
In his career in all fields of musical productions he has worked with artists like Lil Lindfors, Nils Henning Örsted Petersen, Tommy Körberg, Jukka Linkola, Stefan Forssén, Lars Storck, Ingrid Kindem, Reykjaviks Brass Ensemble, The Icelandic Symphony Orchestra or The National Philharmonics Of Lithuania, just to mention a few.
In the year 2000 Egill worked with Björn Thoroddsen and his trio. The same year Reykjavik (capital of Iceland) was one of Europes Cultural Cities and Egill and Bjorn's Trio travelled the world, representing Icelandic music.
In 2001 to 2003 Egill was working as a composer and singer for The Norwegian State Consert promoters (Rikskonserterne). The production "Ægir" turnéed around in Norway in fall 2001, spring and autumn 2003.
In 2004 Egill was signed by Sony/BMG along with his band "Studmenn", toured Germany, Italy and Russia.
In the same year he also released a compilation of his renowned theater music.
In 2005 he returned to the legendary Royal Albert Hall in London, this time performing with his band "Studmenn", and also appearing in one of Europe´s most popular and best viewed TV-Shows.
Egill is currently working with Björn Thoroddsen, touring with their program "Tónlist fyrir alla" (music for everyone), which is dedicated to teach kids the beauty and fun of music and art, as well as performing with Studmenn. He is also lending his unique voice to performances of the Icelandic Sound Company when touring Europe.
In November 2006 Egill has released his fourth solo-album called "Miskunn Dalfiska", which received outstanding reviews abroad.
More information:
http://www.egill-olafsson.com
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