Bio

Officially, I began my music studies in 1981 taking drum lessons from Gudmundur Steingrimsson, famed Icelandic jazz player. Unofficially, I’d been banging pots and pans since 1975. In 1986, I switched over to the keyboard and began composing songs.I have no idea how that happened but for some reason melodic lines and rhythmic patterns began pouring into my head from somewhere.

I attended Icelandic FIH 1986 – 89 where I studied piano with Jakobina Axelsdottir, theory with Jonas Thorir Jr., and music history with famed Icelandic composer Leifur Thorarinsson who, fall 1989, offered me private, after-hour lessons in composition. Leifur left us too early and is missed by me and others that had the good fortune to get to know him. In my early music days, I received invaluable advice from my friend and mentor Thorir Thorisson, clarinet player and former member of the Icelandic National Symphonic Orchestra.

In 1991, I crossed the Atlantic Ocean and began my studies at Berklee College of Music, Boston, USA, where I received a dual BM degree in Music Production & Engineering and Music Business & Management. I worked for some time for PolyGram (Mercury label) now Universal Music Group, was in  progressive rock band called Drapes of Rain between 1993 – 95 which headlined in Boston’s leading clubs, and studied conducting with David Callahan and Louis Stewart. I also hold an MBA degree in marketing and market analysis from Suffolk University (class of 1995), Boston.

As of November 21 2010, I have 463 songs under my belt. These range from solo piano to orchestral works, purely classical to ambient and new age works. I’m a member of the Icelandic performing rights society STEF, the Nordic Copyright Bureau, and the Iceland Music Information Centre.