Kian Soltani

Hailed by The Times as an “extraordinary cellist” and described by Gramophone as “pure perfection”, Kian Soltani’s performance is characterized by its expressive depth, sense of individuality, and technical mastery, along with his charismatic stage presence and ability to create an immediate emotional connection with the audience. He is currently a guest of the world’s leading orchestras, conductors, and recital promoters, which has made him a rising star and one of the most talked-about cellists today.
In 2022/23, Soltani opens this season with numerous appearances at festivals, such as the BBC Proms, Bregenz Festspiele, Rheingau Musik Festival, Vaduz Classic Festival, Tsinandali Festival, and Kronberg Festival. He continues to appear at other festivals throughout the year at the Samobor Festival in Croatia, as well as the Amsterdam Cello Biennale. In between and after the festivals, he will make his debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jader Bignamini, a tour with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, and his return to the Vienna Symphony and the Lucerne Festival Strings in the spring.
He has recently performed with orchestras such as the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya. Soltani was Artist in Residence at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in July 2021, where he curated concerts, including a Persian evening with the Shiraz Ensemble. Soltani began a multi-year residency with Junge Wilde at Konzerthaus Dortmund in the fall of 2018. As a recitalist, Soltani has recently performed at Carnegie Hall, the Salzburg and Lucerne Festivals, Wigmore Hall, and the Boulez Saal, where he was invited to curate an evening of music for cello.In 2017, Soltani signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and his first album ‘Home’, composed of works for cello and piano by Schubert, Schumann, and Reza Vali, was released to international acclaim in 2018, with Gramophone describing the recording as “sublime”. Since then, Soltani has recorded albums including the Piano Trios of Dvorak and Tchaikovsky with Lahav Shani and Renaud Capucon, recorded live at the Aix Easter Festival in 2018 released by Warner Classics, and the Dvořák Cello Concerto with the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim in August 2020.He recently won the Innovative Listening Experience Award at the coveted Opus Klassic Awards 2022, Germany’s most prestigious classical music award that distinguishes outstanding artists and recordings, for his album ‘Cello Unlimited’ released in October 2021. He has worked on this latest album with Deutsche Grammophon throughout 2020, and it is a celebration of the cello and film music. About the album, Soltani wrote “Everything you will hear on this album is made solely and exclusively with my cello and played only by me. The possibilities of this instrument are unlimited and endless, and this album is a celebration of the instrument and also of epic film music.”
Soltani gained worldwide attention in April 2013 as the winner of the International Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki. In February 2017, Soltani won Germany’s celebrated Leonard Bernstein Award, and in December 2017, he was awarded the prestigious Credit Suisse Young Artist Award.
Born in Bregenz (Austria) in 1992 into a family of Persian musicians, Soltani began playing the cello at the age of four and was only twelve when he entered the class of Ivan Monighetti at the Basel Music Academy. He was chosen as a fellow of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation in 2014 and completed his advanced studies as a member of the Young Soloists Program at the Kronberg Academy in Germany. He received significant additional musical training at the International Academy of Music in Liechtenstein.
Kian Soltani plays the Antonio Stradivari cello “The London, ex Boccherini”, kindly on loan from a generous patron through the Beares International Violin Society.