Jón S. Jónsson (1934–2005) studied piano at the Reykjavík School of Music and continued his studies in the USA, completing his master’s degree at Northwestern University in 1958, and his doctorate in the 1960s, also from Northwestern. He only worked as a composer in Iceland for a few years, ca. 1960–65, after which he returned to the US. He taught at the Eastern New Mexico University from 1974 until his retirement in 1997. Several of his early works are important in the history of Icelandic modernism, although only a few were ever performed in Iceland, in particular his Sonata for Violin and Piano and the chamber works Traynour and Dimensions.