Árni Heimir Ingólfsson is an Icelandic musicologist, lecturer, and pianist. He has published widely on music history both in Icelandic and English. His monograph Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland was published by Indiana University Press in 2019 and was listed as one of that year’s best books on music by Alex Ross of The New Yorker.
Praised as "a terrific lecturer" by American Record Guide, Ingólfsson has given lectures and pre-concert talks throughout the world, including at conferences in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
Ingólfsson’s latest book, Music at World’s End (SUNY Press, 2025), is a study of the Jewish musicians who fled Germany and Austria to Iceland in the 1930s, and their significant and lasting contribution to the music scene there. The Icelandic version of this book is nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize, and was listed as one of the year’s best non-fiction books by Morgunblaðið, Iceland’s leading newspaper.
Works in progress include a study of the first generation of Icelandic modernist composers. Projects in 2024–25 include lectures in Chicago (American Musicological Society), London (Royal Musical Association), and at the University of Leeds, as well as research residencies at Copenhagen University and Tokyo University of the Arts. In January 2025, he was a special guest on BBC Radio 3’s The Early Music Show, in a program exclusively devoted to Icelandic music.