Ivan Monighetti

Born in 1948, Ivan Monighetti is a Russian cellist and conductor of Swiss descent. The last student of Mstislav Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory, he also worked with him at the Moscow Philharmonic. In addition, he has performed as a soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic with Krzysztof Penderecki, who referred to Monighetti as an “extraordinary cellist,” the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra with Kurt Masur, and the Gulbenkian Orchestra with Muhai Tang.
He has won first prizes, including the Tchaikovsky in 1974, and since then his career has taken him throughout Europe, America, and Japan. He has participated in numerous festivals, such as Ravinia, Berliner Festwochen, Santa Fe, Schleswig Holstein, Argerich and “Sesión de Música”.
His CD “20th Century Music for Solo Cello” was nominated as the Best Recording of the Year and for the Diapason d’Or. Monighetti has a vast 20th-century repertoire as a result of his work with the composers Penderecki, Xenakis, Dutilleux, Knaifel, Schnittke, Gubaidulina, Silvestrov and Ali-Zadeh. Many of them composed works especially for him that are now part of the standard repertoire for cello.In 2003 he performed in the world premiere of the Cello Concerto by Frangiz Ali-Zadeh and his CD of the Six Suites for solo cello by J. S. Bach won the Frederic Prize in 2003. Monighetti has appeared on Swiss television in Ritrato a Monighetti and Monighetti: Storie di famiglia and has recorded for the labels Erato, Harmonia Mundi, Chant du Monde, Orfeo, Berlin Classics, Wego and DUX.He has served as a member of the jury in prestigious competitions such as the J. S. Bach in Leipzig and gives master classes around the world, such as at the Encuentro de Música y Academia de Santander, where he frequently participates. He is currently a cello professor at the Basel Music Academy (Switzerland), a visiting professor at the Moscow Conservatory, and a professor of the Aline Foriel-Destezet Cello Chair at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid.