2025-26 Season
Artist in Residence
Víkingur Ólafsson

Artist in Residence
Víkingur Ólafsson

Cal Performances is thrilled to welcome back Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson
as 2025–26 Artist in Residence, with three opportunities this season to experience his boundless creativity and keen interpretive prowess at the keyboard. Over the course of his celebrated career, Ólafsson has distinguished himself as that rare musician who both values the history and tradition of the canon, and seeks out opportunities to question orthodoxy in the pursuit of his own artistic truth. He is closely associated with the music of Bach, Rameau, Mozart, Chopin, and Debussy, but is also praised for his renditions of Philip Glass’ music and is a committed champion of works by other living composers. Ólafsson’s direct style and uncompromising integrity have captivated classical music aficionados and newcomers alike, and all listeners will welcome his return to the UC Berkeley campus, where his May 2024 recital was hailed as "an astonishing triumph of keyboard virtuosity and sparkling personality" (San Francisco Classical Voice).

Leadership support for the 2025–26 Víkingur Ólafsson residency at Cal Performances is provided by Michael P. N. A. Hormel.

Visit calperformances.com/artist-in-residence-víkingur-olafsson for information about campus events and activities as they are announced.

Ólafsson… combines a ferocious keyboard technique with a razor-sharp intellect that puts those gifts to powerful interpretive use. (Most virtuosos can boast one or the other of these abilities; few can lay claim to both.)"

—Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle

Philharmonia Orchestra
Santtu-Matias Rouvali, principal conductor*
Víkingur Ólafsson, piano

Sat, Oct 18, 8pm, Zellerbach Hall

GABRIELA ORTIZ	New Work (Bay Area Premiere)
BEETHOVEN	Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor
SIBELIUS	Symphony No. 5

Sun, Oct 19, 3pm, Zellerbach Hall

SIBELIUS	Finlandia
RAVEL	Piano Concerto in G major
SHOSTAKOVICH	Symphony No. 5

London’s stellar Philharmonia Orchestra returns to Berkeley with Finnish maestro Santtu-Matias Rouvali—one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation—making his Berkeley debut! In two programs featuring 2025–26 season Artist in Residence Víkingur Ólafsson, orchestra, conductor, and soloist take us on a spectacular journey through a sublime collection of works, from Romantic masterpieces to an exciting new commission.

The first concert features Ólafsson as soloist in Beethoven’s iconic Emperor concerto, as well as the orchestra performing Sibelius' Fifth Symphony, a majestic work evoking a vast, unfolding Nordic landscape.

The program also includes the Bay Area premiere of a new commission by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, a truly original voice in concert music who won three 2025 Grammy awards for a recording of her most recent orchestral works. The second concert matches Ravel’s frolicking, jazz-inflected Piano Concerto in G major with Shostakovich’s emotionally turbulent and engrossing Fifth Symphony.

*Cal Performances debut

Rouvali was always alive to the pictorial detail, matched by the Philharmonia’s alert playing…vivid music-making is one of [his] strengths.

—The Times, London

Víkingur Ólafsson, piano

Opus 109

Wed, Apr 29, 7:30pm, Zellerbach Hall

BACH	Prelude in E major from The Well Tempered Clavier, Book I
BEETHOVEN	Sonata No. 9 in E major, Op. 14, No.1
BACH	Partita No. 6 in E minor
BEETHOVEN	Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90
SCHUBERT	Sonata in E minor
BEETHOVEN	Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109

It will not surprise fans of the probing, insightful pianist Víkingur Ólafsson that his newest project goes deep. Previously, he devoted an entire season of performances to Bach’s Goldberg Variations— playing the cycle for 88 concerts in total, including at Cal Performances in May 2024—because, in his words, "I wanted to know how deeply I can dive into a composition and how many different facets I can discover in it." He won a Grammy this year for his sterling recording of that work. Here, Ólafsson turns his attention to Beethoven’s innovative and emotive Opus 109 piano sonata, taking us on a journey of musical inspiration and influence that includes side trips through the keyboard music of Bach and Schubert, interspersed between movements.

Patron Sponsors: Jeffrey MacKie-Mason and Janet Netz