Gissur Páll Gissurarson

A tenor who began at eleven, in the title role of Oliver Twist at the National Theatre in Reykjavík. He started formal study in 1997 at Söngskólinn í Reykjavík with Magnús Jónsson, and in 2001 he went to the Conservatorio G.B. Martini in Bologna to work with Wilma Vernocchi, finishing afterwards with the tenor Kristján Jóhannsson. His first appearance as a soloist on the opera stage was in 2003, and he has since sung in Iceland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan and the United States. He took third prize at the Flaviano Labò international competition in 2005 and second prize at Brescia in 2006, where the critics gave him their own award. His first record, Ideale, came out in 2010 and mixes Icelandic songs with Neapolitan ones, and in 2012 the Icelandic Music Awards named him classical male singer of the year for his Rodolfo in La bohème at the Icelandic Opera. He teaches singing at Söngskólinn í Reykjavík.