Stefan Sand was born in Copenhagen in 1995. In 2017, he was trained as a pianist and piano teacher from The Royal Danish Academy of Music with Jens Elvekjær and Søren Rastogi. Since then, Stefan moved to Reykjavík, Iceland, where he was educated at Iceland University of the Arts as an innovative music communicator at the master's program "New Audiences and Innovative Practices" in 2021 and then as a composer with ÚIfar Ingi Harraldsson, Hróðmar Sigurbjörnsson and Tryggvi Baldvinsson in 2023. Stefan has studied orchestra conducting privately with Frederik Støvring Olsen and at Iceland University of the Arts with Gunnsteinn Ólafsson, as well as choral conducting with Magnús Regnarsson.
Stefan focuses on communicating music via collaboration with other types of art forms and artists, such as his project Look at the Music has demonstrated in 2021-2023.
In 2024 Stefan was nominated for a GRÍMAN award for his work in the cultural scene in Iceland.
As a choir director, Stefan often writes music for choirs and conducts the mixed choirs Hljómeyki, Mótettukórinn and the womens choir Vox Feminae. Even though Stefan is newly educated, he has already established himself as a composer and conductor in the Icelandic cultural scene and has written music for several choirs and soloists, including the University Choir of Iceland, Women's Choir Vox Feminae, Art Across Vocal Ensemble, Guðrún Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir and Ólafur Freyr Birkisson.
While Stefan has a strong passion for choir music, he has his roots in orchestral conducting. Larger productions that he has conducted as of late includes the opera Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven, Mass in C for orchestra and choir by Ludwig van Beethoven and the opera The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
"Stefan Sand and Thomas Hammel have presented a project of great interest for the Icelandic cultural scene. Involving a minority of the society that is often left out in the performing arts, namely the deaf and hard of hearing, is an important in interesting undertaking. We at Óperudagar (Reykjavík Opera Days), have decided to show our support to this project and we are hosting and collaborating with this group of young artists, to realize their ambitions here in Iceland."
- Guja Sandholt, Director of Reykjavik Opera Festival
Stefan has published several compositions, all of which can be found on this webpage.
Together with colleagues Thomas Hammel and Haukur Darri Hauksson, Stefan has created an art group called “Art Across”. This group has come to life in the year 2022 as part of a research project and concert series called Look at the Music, which in short can be described as follows:
The scope of this project is twofold, with a branch that is purely artistic and a branch that regards the sociology and inclusivity of the creative process.
Art Across is a direct continuation of a previous endeavor, also called “Look at the music”, which resulted in a concert gathering a variety of innovative concepts sharing a common goal: bringing together hearing experience and deaf experience, sign-language arts, and music. The pieces presented in the concert tried various ways at conveying a unifying experience to two different audiences, focusing on the musical aspect and the inclusion of sign-language.
Educating the new generation is key and Stefan has taken many measures to engage young people in music. He is teaching piano at the music school in Árbæjar and Kópavgur and has often arranged concerts for children. His final project of his first master at Iceland University of the arts included new compositions for children along with the creating videos and teaching material. Here you can listen and watch Stefan ́s interpretation of The ugly Duckling, a fairytale by H.C. Andersen.
