Victor Urbancic

Who was Victor Urbancic?

Dr. Victor Urbancic or Viktor von Urbantschitsch was an Austrian composer, conductor, teacher and music scholar from Vienna. He emigrated to Iceland in 1938. His wife, Melitta, came from a Jewish family. Urbancic stayed for the second half of his life in Iceland and had a big influence on the music development in the country at the time.

Urbancic worked as teacher and director of the opera studio at the Conservatory of Graz before he came to Iceland in 1938. He also was lecturer of musicology of the University of Graz. In Iceland he was very important for the music-life. He became music director of the Icelandic National Theater in Reykjavík. He conducted the first opera in Iceland which was Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi in 1951. He taught at the Reykjavík College of Music. He was organist and choir director of the Landakotskirkja in Reykjavík. Urbancic died on Good Friday in 1958 in Reykjavík.