Sæunn Þorsteinsdóttir

Icelandic-American cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir enjoys a varied career as a performer, collaborator and teaching artist. She has appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Iceland Symphony, among others, and her recital and chamber music performances have taken her across the US, Europe and Asia. 

Sæunn has performed in many of the world's prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall, Elbphilharmonie and the Barbican Center. An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated in performance with Itzhak Perlman, Mitsuko Uchida and Richard Goode and has participated in numerous chamber music festivals, including Prussia Cove and Marlboro. 

A great advocate for new music, Sæunn has ordered works and premiered music by contemporary composers. Her 2019 recording Vernacular, released on the label Sono Luminus, featured cello works by Icelandic composers, and among her close collaborators from the world of new Icelandic music are Daníel Bjarnason, Páll Ragnar Pálsson, Halldór Smárason and Þuríður Jónsdóttir. In recent years, Sæunn has been on the teaching faculty of the University of Washington in Seattle, but has now been appointed to the The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.