Gunnsteinn Olafsson conducts the Iceland Youth Symphony Orchestra and the University Choir. He studied violin and composition at the Reykjavik College of Music, composition at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest and conducting and music theory at the Hochschule fur Music in Freiburg, Germany. Gunnsteinn Olafsson teaches conducting and music theory at the Iceland Academy of Arts and Reykjavik College of Music. His and Böðvar Guðmundsson's fairy tale opera Baldursbrá (Marguerite) was performed in Harpa in 2015. Gunnsteinn Olafsson has collected Icelandic folk music for the Folk Music Centre in Siglufjord for many years and is the artistic director of the Folk Music Festival in Siglufjord.