Ásdís Valdimarsdottir is an internationally renowned Violist, Viola Teacher, and Chamber Music Coach, currently on the faculty of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Initially, Ásdís began her music studies in Iceland as a violinist. While attending the Reykjavík music school when she was 15, she finally heard a professional violist play a recital and she knew from then on that the viola was her instrument. Iceland, a sparsely populated country, had very few viola players at the time and it was not until Ásdís went to study at The Juilliard School that her playing and understanding of the instrument soared.

Ásdís credits the support of her mother and her sister Lilja in helping her early musical development, which has led to her success. Her true passion for the instrument and for chamber music in particular makes Ásdís' work as a musician and teacher fulfilling on a daily basis. Born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1962, she studied at the Juilliard School in New York with Paul Doktor, William Lincer, Felix Galimir and the Juilliard Quartet. After graduating with a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Music she continued her studies at Detmold, Germany with Nobuko Imai, who was a true inspiration to her musically, technically and personally and continues to be a source of inspiration to her. During her studies in Germany, she was principal viola of the Deutsche Kammer Akademie Neuss, a small string ensemble led by the cellist Johannes Goritski.

Ásdís returned to America to be a founding member of the Miami String Quartet, with whom she won the first prize of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. There she was also a Professor of viola at the New World School of the Arts. She went on to become the principal viola of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in 1990, with whom she worked closely with many great artists, such as Heinrich Shiff, Gidon Kremer, Walter Levine and Sandor Vegh.

In 1995 Ásdís joined the Chilingirian String Quartet and was their violinist until 2003. With them she travelled extensively and made numerous CD and radio recordings and was in residence as a Chamber Music Coach at the Royal College of Music in London. She left the Quartet when her daughter was 2 years old- finding motherhood and the demands of the international travelling Quartet impossible to combine in a satisfactory way.  Since then she has become more and more passionate about teaching; first holding a professorship at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester for 7 years before eventually moving all her regular teaching to the Royal Conservatory The Hague. Over the years she has participated in many prestigious music festivals around the world, such as Marlboro, Kuhmo, Lockenhaus, Davos, Berliner Festspiele, Prussia Cove, Bath, St. Nazaire, Prades and Festival Inverno in Brazil where she has performed and taught. She has appeared as a soloist with the London Mozart Players, the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, Het Brabants Orkest and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

Currently, Ásdís is based in Amsterdam and enjoys a mix of chamber and solo appearances and teaching. She is on the faculty of The Royal Conservatory in The Hague and annually at the International Masterclass in Apeldoorn, NL, for viola and chamber music. She is a member of the Erard Ensemble- a piano quartet that uses pianos made by Sebastien Erard in the early 1800´s, and Endymion- a renowned London based Chamber ensemble with yearly appearances at The Wigmore Hall. Ásdís is fluent in English, Dutch, German and Icelandic of course.

When not teaching or playing viola, she enjoys her two wonderful kids who are young teenagers at this point, running and yoga, all kinds of exotic international foods and arty films. Currently she is embarking on getting trained as an Andover Educator- a method called Body Mapping- an in depth expansion on how body awareness can help musicians play without injuries.

Worldwide Association of Notable Alumni Member, Ásdís Valdimarsdottir, can be found on the Association Directory where she is looking forward to networking with you.