Leifur Þórarinsson

Leifur Þórarinsson (also written Thórarinsson, 13 August 1934 – 24 April 1998) was an Icelandic composer, violinist, music critic, and radio broadcaster. He was among the leading Icelandic composers of his generation and one of the first Icelandic composers to employ serial technique in his works. Biography Leifur Þórarinsson was born in Reykjavík, the oldest of three children of Alda Möller, one of Iceland’s leading actresses at the time, and her husband, Þórarinn Kristjánsson. The death of his mother in 1948, when he was only 14 years old, was a traumatic event for Leifur and his siblings. He studied music at the Reykjavík School of Music, where Jón Þórarinsson was among his teachers, and there Leifur learned the compositional technique commonly associated with Paul Hindemith. He studied in Vienna and Munich from 1954 to 1956, taking lessons with Hanns Jelinek, Karl Schiske, and Wilhelm Killmayer. His first international breakthrough came in 1956, when his Violin Sonata was selected for performance at the ISCM Festival in Stockholm – a remarkable feat for a 22-year-old composer. After a few years in Iceland, he then continued his studies in New York, first with Wallingford Riegg