Jón Leifs

He graduated in 1921 having studied piano with Robert Teichmüller, but decided not to embark on a career as a pianist, devoting his time instead to conducting and composing.

During this period he also encountered the legendary pianist-composer Ferruccio Busoni, who urged him to "follow his own path in composition".

[2] In the 1920s Jón Leifs conducted a number of symphony orchestras in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Norway and Denmark, thus becoming the only internationally successful Icelandic conductor to date,[1] although he failed to obtain a fixed position.

Beginning with piano arrangements of Icelandic folk songs, Jón Leifs started an active career as a composer in the 1920s.

However, having found it difficult to implement his vision for the radio service, he resigned from the post in 1937 and returned to Germany.

In 1945 Jón Leifs moved back to Iceland (leaving his family in Sweden), and became a fierce proponent of music education and of artists’ rights.

Jón Leifs’ younger daughter Líf drowned in a swimming accident off the coast of Sweden in 1947, aged only eighteen.

Jón Leifs composed his last work, Consolation, Intermezzo for string orchestra, as he had only weeks to live.

Jón Leifs and his first wife are the subjects of the film Tears of Stone (Tár úr steini) (1995) by Icelandic director Hilmar Oddsson.