Ögmundur Thor
Ögmundur Þór Jóhannesson was born in Reykjavík 1980. He began to study the classical guitar at the age of 10, and finished his music studies in Iceland with honors in may 2000.
He made private studies at the “Escola Luthier d'arts musical“ in Barcelona, Spain from 2000-2002 with Arnaldur Arnarsson, Ricardo Jesús Gallén, Alex Garrobé and Sadahiro Otani amongst others.
He graduated in June 2008 from Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Austria. There, under the guidance of Marco Diaz-Tamayo, he finished his Bachelors and Masters Degree with honors.
He is now currently taking lessons with Carlo Marchione in Maastricht Conservatory.
He has received various awards and recognitions, amongst others the sought-after Icelandic Artist Salary Grant for 9 months from the Icelandic government for 2010, from the Icelandic Rotary Movement in January 2009, Jean Pierre Jaquillat Institution in 2005 and 2 other artistic awards that same year from Iceland. In 2003 he won the second price at the II International guitar competition “Agustin Barrios” in Lambesc, France (first price was not awarded). In 2001 he was a finalist at the VII International guitar competition Andres Segovia in Linares, Spain.
He has been invited to perform at various music festivals and concerts in Iceland (Nordic Music Days 2011, Dark Music Days 2010), USA (Mostly Nordic Chamber Music Series, Seattle), Israel (Guitar Gems Festival 2011) India (Blue Frog, Mumbai), England (London), France (Islande-Provence), Austria (Fratres and Trigonale festivals), Germany and Russia (St.Petersburg). In 2008 he made the premiere of the Sonata of Karólína Eiríksdóttir in Paris, France which was dedicated to him.
He has also taught masterclasses in Iceland Academy of Arts and Washington University.
He received excellent critics for both of his solo recitals for the Tíbrá Concert Series in Iceland in 2005 and 2008 from mbl.is : “…Ögmundur is an astonishing guitarist”, “…technical security… emotional depth… convincing… with fire… guitarist of great expectation…”
He has taken various master courses with Aniello Desiderio, Costas Cotsiolis, Joaquín Clerch, Thomas Müller Pering, Pavel Steidl, Manuel Barrueco and David Russell, amongst others.
Ögmundur currently lives in Berlin, Germany where he works as a freelance musician, teaching in various institutes and performing regularly as a solist and with chamber ensembles.