Biography / CV

Ingi Bjarni Skúlason is an Icelandic pianist and composer who shapes his own poetics. He has released 7 albums with his music and toured both in Europe and Japan. He makes his own kind of folk music with the freedom of expressiveness, and space for both lyrical and free improvisation.

Over the years, Ingi Bjarni has performed his original music with a wide range of musicians across Iceland and Europe. He has appeared at numerous international jazz festivals, including Jazzahead (Bremen), Transilvania Jazz Festival, Elbjazz (Hamburg), Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Vilnius Jazz Festival, Lillehammer Jazz Festival, Nordic Jazz Comets, and Reykjavík Jazz Festival. In addition to these, he has given concerts in Iceland, Japan, Sweden, Germany, the UK, Estonia, Latvia, the Faroe Islands, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Three of his albums have been nominated for the Icelandic Music Awards. In 2020, he was awarded as the most promising jazz artist in Iceland, and in 2025, he received the award for Jazz Composition of the Year. His work has received recognition and praise internationally and has been positively reviewed in a variety of magazines, blogs and other media.

Ingi Bjarni completed a Bachelor’s degree in Jazz Performance at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (Koninklijk Conservatorium) in 2016. In the spring of 2018, he finished a specialized Master’s program in composition, Nordic Master: The Composing Musician, with semesters in Gothenburg, Copenhagen, and Oslo. The program emphasized artistic values and compositional craft, complementing his earlier focus on classical jazz piano performance. His teachers and mentors have included Misha Alperin, Anders Jormin, Helge Lien, Aaron Parks, Eyolf Dale, Eric Gieben, Agnar Már Magnússon, and Helge Sunde. In spring 2024, he completed a diploma in arts education at the Iceland University of the Arts.

In addition to his work as a performer and composer, Ingi Bjarni is active as a music educator, teaching piano and accompanying students, as well as giving talks on flow and musical creativity – most notably at the Iceland University of the Arts and the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg. He has also created and hosted In Duo With, a concert series and YouTube program where he invited Icelandic musicians for conversations about improvisation and music-making, followed by duo performances.

“Hope is not simply an album; it is a quiet triumph, a testament to art’s enduring power to transform pain into something truly luminous..” – All About Jazz

„this intriguingly gifted pianist has for some time now shown an impressive ability to shape his own world, his own poetics“ – Jazz Journal

“Tenging is a highly accomplished work of art that flows with ease and coherence.” – All About Jazz

“Ingi Bjarni, who composed all the songs, presents a strongly narrative style that reflects the unit’s individuality” – Jazz Japan

“In short, Ingi Bjarni is profiling himself as an improvising sound magician.” – Musiczine

Album releases as leader

• Hope (2025) – quartet
• Fragile Magic (2024) – piano trio
• Farfuglar (2023) – quintet
• Lessons (2021) – solo piano
• Tenging (2019) – quintet
• Fundur (2018) – piano trio
• Skarkali (2015) – piano trio

Publications

• Hope (2025) – sheet music
• Lessons (2021) – sheet music
• Innsæi (2018) –  master thesis

Projects, residencies and collaborations

• Artist residency at Skrova Fyr, Norway (September 2022)
• Artist residency at Hólar í Hjaltadal, Iceland (July 2021)
• In Duo With, video talk show (2020 – 2021)
• Daily Improv (April 2021)
• Pianist in TV show “Auður Norðursins” at the Nordic House in Reykjavík (November 2020)
• Music Cities Network Jazz Residency in Hamburg, Germany (2019)
• Eyjafjalla Experience, Swedish-Icelandic collaboration (2011 – 2013)
• Silfurberg, creative summer job in Reykjavík (2010)

Honours and other achievements

• Award for “Visan” as jazz composition of the year (2025)
• Nomination for “Fragile Magic” as jazz album of the year (2025)
• Nomination for “Farfuglar” as jazz album of the year (2024)
• Award as the most promising jazz artist (2020)
• Five nominations for “Tenging” (2020)
• Nomination for Ingi Bjarni Trio as jazz group of the year (2018)
• Nomination as the most promising jazz artist (2014)

• Six-month’s stipend from the Artist’s Salary Fund in Iceland (2022, 2024)
• The RÚV and STEF Composer’s Fund (2018, 2019, 2020, 2022)
• Märta, Sten och Stellan Hähnels minnesfond in Sweden (2017)

• Award for outstanding musicianship at Berklee Summer School in Umbria (2009)
• Most promising keyboard player at Músíktilraunir (Battle of the bands) (2007)

Education and qualifications

• 2023 – 2024:
  Additional Diploma in Art Pedagogy from Iceland University of the Arts
• 2016 – 2018: 
  Masters education programme, ‘Nordic Master – The Composing Musician’, from Högskolan för scen och musik, Gothenburg, with two exchange semesters – one in Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium, Copenhagen, and the other in Norges Musikkhøgskole, Oslo.
• 2012-2016:
  Bachelor in Jazz Performance from Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag, The Netherlands.
• 2005-2011: 
  F.Í.H. School of Music, Reykjavík, Iceland – with one exchange semester in Musikhögskolan Ingesund, Sweden (2010).

Tutors and mentors

• Anders Jormin, Mikhail Alperin, Aaron Parks, Helge Lien, Simon Toldam, Nikolaj Hess, Jasper Soffers, Eyolf Dale, Juraj Stanik, Anders Persson, Hanne Boel, Maria Laurette Friis, Eric Gieben, Helge Sunde, Eyþór Gunnarson, Daniel Nolgård, Agnar Már Magnússon, Vignir Þór Stefánsson, and more.

Music courses

• Havana Music School, Havana (2023)
• Timani Introductory Course, Oslo (2017)
• Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium Jazz Summer Camp, Copenhagen (2017)
• Berklee at Umbria Jazz Festival, Perugia (2009)

Teaching positions

• Menntaskóli í tónlist (High School of Music) (2023 – present)
  • Jazz piano, jazz history, accompanist for singers
• F.Í.H. School of Music (2019 – present)
  • Jazz piano, ensemble, accompanist for singers
• Tónlistarskóli Kópavogs (2018 – present )
  • Jazz piano, accompanist for singers
• Listaskóli Mosfellsbæjar (2018 – 2022)
  • Jazz piano, accompanist for singers
• Tónlistarskólinn á Akranesi (2011)
  • Accompanist for singers

• Iceland Academy of Arts – guest teacher in project week (September 2022)
• Iceland Academy of Arts – Lecture about Flow (September 2020)
• University of Gothenburg – Lecture about Flow (May 2018)