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Sigurður Flosason - saxophonist and composer

Icelandic saxophonist Sigurdur Flosason (1964) started playing jazz as a teenager and attracted attention in his home country early on. He studied at The Reykjavik College of Music and graduated in 1983 with a Performance Diploma in classical saxophone. Further studies at Indiana University in the U.S. where he earned a Bachelor's degree in 1986 and a Master’s degree in 1988, in both jazz studies and classical saxophone. At Indiana he studied with jazz education guru David Baker and leading classical saxophonist Eugene Rousseau. Sigurdur continued his studies with George Coleman in New York during the winter 1988-89.

After returning home in1989, Sigurdur emerged as one of Iceland’s most active jazz musicians, performing frequently at home and abroad. He has recorded close to 30 CDs with a wide variety of jazz music; everything from his own compositions and jazz standards to experimental music and improvisational solo performances with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Norrbotten Big Band and various Icelandic choirs. Sigurdur is a driving force and frequent conductor of the Reykjavik Big Band and a founding member of the Icelandic Saxophone Quartet. He has performed in all the Scandinavian countries, the US, Canada, Japan, China, Thailand and various European countries.

Sigurdur has been much involved and influential in music education in Iceland. From 1989 to 2017 he was head of the jazz department at the FÍH School of Music, Iceland’s leading jazz school at the time. Since 2017 he’s been vice principal and head of the rhytmic department of MÍT (Menntaskóli í tónlist) and since 2018 head of rhytmic teacher’s education at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts.

Sigurdur has given numerous courses, clinics and workshops in Iceland and abroad, as well as working extensively for the Icelandic ministry of education on curriculum for Icelandic music schools. Furthermore, he has been instrumental in promoting jazz music in Iceland by organizing concert series and festivals. He is on the board of STEF, the Icelandic Composer’s Rights Association.

Sigurdur Flosason won 1st price in the American Hoagy Carmichael composition competition in 1987 and was a finalist in Europe Jazz Contest 1990. He was nominated for the Nordic Council’s music price in 2000 and 2003 and is a eight times winner of the Icelandic Music Awards. He was also nominated for the Danish music awards in 2011 for a recording with Danish singer Cathrine Legardh. Sigurdur Flosason was City Artist of Gardabaer, Iceland in 2005.

In recent years Sigurdur has become increasingly active in Denmark and Sweden. He has released two CDs in Sweden and five on the internationally renowned Danish Storyville label. These recordings involve many of Scandinavia’s leading lights in contemporary jazz music such as Lars Jansson, Morten Lund, Lennart Ginman, Nikolaj Hess, Thomas Fonnesbæk, Kjeld Lauritsen, Jacob Fischer and others.

Sigurdur Flosason is a Yamaha artist.