Biography
“Soltani’s outstanding playing created a moving experience for the audience. The cello bow seemed to be a mere extension of his arm, his fingers flying over the fingerboard as if it were the most natural thing in the world.” Seen and Heard International on Soltani’s performance of the Schumann Cello Concerto with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich in September 2023
New worlds of imagination appear whenever Kian Soltani makes music. A sense of individuality, depth of expression and charismatic presence are among the elements of the young Austrian cellist’s captivating artistry. Rave reviews and invitations to perform at the world’s leading concert halls have propelled him from rising star to one of the most exciting musicians of his generation. Soltani’s status was confirmed in 2017 when he not only won both Germany’s prestigious Leonard Bernstein Award (February) and the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award (December), but also signed an exclusive contract to record for Deutsche Grammophon (July).
His debut DG album, Home, comprising works for cello and piano by Schubert, Schumann and Reza Vali, was released to widespread critical acclaim in February 2018. Soltani then made three chamber albums with Daniel and Michael Barenboim: the Mozart Piano Quartets, recorded live at the Boulez Saal with Yulia Deyneka (released in August 2018); the complete Mozart Piano Trios (2019); and the complete Beethoven Piano Trios (2020).
Also released in 2020 was an album devoted to Dvořák. As well as the Cello Concerto, in which Soltani is accompanied by the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim, it featured five other pieces by the composer in arrangements for solo cello and cello ensemble. Recorded with the cellists of the Staatskapelle Berlin, three of these arrangements were by Soltani himself – Allegro moderato from Romantic Pieces op.75, “Lasst mich allein” from the 4 Lieder op.82 and “Songs my Mother Taught Me” from Gypsy Melodies op.55.
Soltani’s next album, Cello Unlimited, was a celebration of both his instrument and his love of cinema. Featuring the cellist’s own arrangements of film scores by Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore and others, on which he plays every part himself, the album came out in October 2021 and earned the 2022 OPUS KLASSIK Innovative Listening Experience award.
His latest release focuses on the music of Schumann. At its heart is the masterful Cello Concerto in A minor. Soltani directs the Camerata Salzburg from the cello in this and in orchestrations of four other works by Schumann. The album also features Soltani’s transcriptions for cello and piano of music by both Robert and Clara Schumann, in which he is accompanied by French pianist Julien Quentin. Kian Soltani – Schumann was released in September 2024.
Forthcoming highlights include several appearances at Amsterdam’s Cello Biennale (2‑10 November) – among them a performance of Cello Unlimited live with seven previous winners of the Dutch National Cello Competition, the world premiere of Azerbaijani composer Frangiz Ali-Zadeh’s Cello Concerto with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, a concert of traditional and modern Persian music, and Kabalevsky’s Second Cello Concerto with The Hague Philharmonic. He also performs Korngold’s Cello Concerto with the Berner Symphonieorchester (14/15 November) and Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante with the hr-Sinfonieorchester in Frankfurt (21/22 November). On 15 January he gives another world premiere, that of the Cello Concerto written for him by Austrian composer Marcus Nigsch (aka Marque), with the Wiener Symphoniker at the Vienna Musikverein. He will give further performances of the work in Graz, Salzburg and Bregenz later that month.
Kian Soltani was born in Bregenz in 1992 to a family of Persian musicians. He began playing the cello at the age of four and was only twelve when he joined Ivan Monighetti’s class at the Basel Music Academy. He remained with Monighetti for eleven years, absorbing enduring lessons from the last person to study with Mstislav Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory. He made his international breakthrough in 2011 at the age of nineteen with acclaimed debuts in the Vienna Musikverein’s Goldener Saal and at the Hohenems Schubertiade. He attracted further worldwide attention in April 2013 as winner of the International Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki. Chosen as a Mutter Foundation scholarship holder in 2014, he completed further studies at Germany’s Kronberg Academy as a member of its Young Soloist Programme, as well as at the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein.
In addition to his work as concerto soloist and chamber musician, Soltani flourished as principal cello of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (WEDO), and in 2015 joined Daniel Barenboim as one of the soloists in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, performing the work with the WEDO in Berlin, at the Salzburg and Lucerne festivals, at the BBC Proms in London, and at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Other early career highlights include tours with Anne-Sophie Mutter and her Mutter’s Virtuosi; his participation in the opening week of Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal in March 2017; an appearance in the Bernstein centennial gala concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in August 2018; and debuts at the Berlin Staatsoper, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, New York’s Carnegie Hall and London’s Royal Festival Hall and Cadogan Hall, among many others. In October 2023 he was appointed to the faculty of Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts (MDW).
Kian Soltani plays the “London ex Boccherini 1694” Stradivarius, thanks to a generous loan.
10/2024