Ísak Ríkharðsson, born in 1993 in Reykjavík, Iceland, began his violin studies three years old at the Allegro Suzuki Music School. He started taking piano lessons at the age of seven and continued
studying it as a second instrument. After finishing his studies at the Reykjavík Conservatory in 2008 he went on to study with Guðný Guðmundsdóttir at The Iceland Academy of Arts. Ísak studied towards asoloist diploma at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) in the class of Prof. Rudolf Koelman after having finished BA and MA degrees from the same school. He has played with the school chamber orchestra ZHdK Strings in their concerts in Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, Thailand and Iceland both as a member and a soloist.

Ísak was employed in October 2021 as an acting second leader of the 2nd violins of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. He has participated in the Swedish National Orchestra Academy (SNOA) at the Gothenburg Academy of the Arts as well as touring as a substitute with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Collegium Novum Zürich, Norrbotten NEO, Basel Sinfonietta and Sinfonieorchester Liechtenstein under the baton of conductors such as Hannu Lintu, Emilio Pomàrico, Johannes Kalitzke, Tito Ceccherini, Johannes Schöllhorn, Stefan Asbury, James Gaffigan, Osmo Vänskä, Eva Ollikainen, Matthew Halls, Baldur Brönnimann, Eivind Aadland, Ilan Volkov and Petri Sakari. Ísak has led the 2nd violin section of Winterthurer Symphoniker since 2015 and performed Shostakovich’s 1st concerto with the orchestra in January 2020. He is also a member of the Ever Present Orchestra, which specializes in the performance of the works of Alvin Lucier. He has performed regularly in the contemporary concert series Museumskonzerte Winterthur, works by composers such as György Kurtág, Steve Reich, Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Brice Pauset. Ísak has attended lessons and workshops in Iceland, USA, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Spain with Phillipe Graffin, Lara Lev, Alex Kerr, Thomas Zehetmair, Julia Fischer, Oleh Krysa, Brett Dean and Nik Bärtsch amongst others.

In 2012 Ísak won the Iceland Symphony’s Young Soloist Competition and performed Prokofiev’s 2nd concerto with the orchestra. He also received the 2017 Young Musicians Grant of the Rotary Club in Iceland. From 2003 – 2005 Ísak performed as a boy soprano singing solo with many choirs and in the Icelandic Opera’s production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw which was awarded the Icelandic Music Award in 2005.

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