Leonard ELSCHENBROICH, cello

Winner of this year’s Borletti-Buitoni-Trust, the 23 year-old cellist Leonard Elschenbroich has recently caught the attention of today’s greatest international conductors. Subsequent invitations to orchestral Debuts include: Valery Gergiev for Basel Symphony, Semyon Bychkov with the WDR Symphony, Manfred Honeck with the Swedish Radio Symphony, Christoph Eschenbach and Anne-Sophie Mutter at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, as well as personal invitations from Fabio Luisi, Howard Griffiths and Paavo Jаеrvi. He has also been invited to perform chamber music by Gidon Kremer at the Lockenhaus Festival, Katia & Marielle Labеque at the Verbier Festival, and Anne-Sophie Mutter in Weimar and Munich.

As part of the concert series “Masters on Tour” he has just returned from Recitals in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, as well as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Bratislava, Prague, Tallinn and Helsinki. Upcoming recitals include the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and Beethoven Saal Bonn, as well as the Festivals of Davos, Montreux and Schleswig-Holstein, where he will be playing a recital with Christoph Eschenbach, and he will also be returning to the Verbier Festival.

Other orchestral concerts include the City Hall of Hong Kong, the Herkulessaal with the Munich Symphony, the Staatsorchester Frankfurt and the Stavanger Symphony in Norway. Leonard has just made his Debut recording for Naxos, to be released this year, featuring works by Alfred Schnittke, which will include an homage composition of his own.

Recently he appeared as a Soloist with the Kremerata Baltica, the Bremen Philharmonic, the WDR Symphony and the Belarus National Philharmonic in the Concertgebouw. As a recitalist Leonard has performed with pianists such as Marc-Andre Hamelin and Martin Helmchen in 18 European countries and will be giving recitals with Anna Vinnistkaya and Polina Leschenko this Summer. At the last Kronberg Cello Festival he was awarded the “Landgraf-v.-Hessen-Prize”. Previous awards include: „Best New Coming Artist“ by the “Pro Europa” Society 2005, Eugene-Istomin Prize for “Most Promising Young Artist” 2004 and Verbier Academy „Top Cellist Prize“ 2003. For the last three years Leonard has received intensive support by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation.

Born 1985 in Frankfurt, Leonard was invited to the Yehudi Menuhin School in London at the age of 10 and gave over a hundred concerts in England, amongst them at the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Wigmore Hall. He currently holds a Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

He plays a cello by Matteo Goffriller «Leonard Rose», Venice 1693, on private loan.

«Leonard has an extraordinary and unique gift: His musical sensitivity, combined with courageous virtuosity are truly impressive and his radiant expressive personality is deeply convincing.»
Anne Sophie Mutter

«Depth, expressivity, charisma, perfection. His playing is the ideal every artist searches for.»
Christoph Eschenbach