Gunnar Kvaran (born 16 January 1944) is an Icelandic cellist. He is considered one of Iceland's leading cellists and string pedagogues and has performed widely in Iceland and abroad.
Gunnar was born in the town of Seltjarnarnes near ReykjavÃÂk, the son of actor ÃÂvar Kvaran and the great-grandson of Einar Hjörleifsson Kvaran. He began studying the cello with Einar Vigfússon at the age of twelve and went to Copenhagen in 1964 to study with the famous Danish-Icelandic cellist Erling Blöndal Bengtsson at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. Later on he studied with Reine Flachot in Paris and Basel.
Gunnar Kvaran has given concerts widely, including Wigmore Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in New York and Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. He has frequently appeared as soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.
In 1988, he established the ReykjavÃÂk Trio with Halldór Haraldsson and Guðný Guðmundsdóttir. He was its cellist for 30 years, until the Trio gave its final concert in 2018.
For 25 years, Gunnar Kvaran taught at the ReykjavÃÂk College of Music, where he headed the department of string instruments. He was also professor of stringed instruments and chamber music in the music department at the Iceland Academy of the Arts, where the ReykjavÃÂk Trio was the resident chamber music ensemble.
He is married to Guðný Guðmundsdóttir, former concertmaster of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.