Jan Vogler

Born in East Berlin in 1964, Jan Vogler received his first cello lessons from his father, Peter Vogler, and later studied with Josef Schwab, Heinrich Schiff, and Siegfried Palm. In 1984 he was appointed Principal Cellist of the Staatskapelle Dresden, leaving that position in 1997 to devote himself entirely to his solo career. He has appeared with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston, Chicago, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, the Munich Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Vogler has long championed contemporary music, giving world premieres of works by composers including Tigran Mansurian, John Harbison, Wolfgang Rihm, Jörg Widmann, Nico Muhly, and Sean Shepherd. He also values dialogue with other art forms and genres, as shown by his appearances with poet Amanda Gorman, actor Bill Murray, and the ensemble The Knights. Vogler soon expanded his work beyond his international solo career, taking on leading roles in cultural management. In 2001 he took on directorship of the Moritzburg Festival, which focuses on chamber music. Since 2008 he has served as Artistic Director of the Dresden Music Festival, where he and Kent Nagano initiated “The Wagner Cycles,” a project comprising all four Ring operas in historically informed performance; these performances have been presented each summer since 2023 at Lucerne Festival. Vogler has released recordings on Sony Classical since 2003;  collaboration has produced 20 CDs, with repertoire ranging from Bach’s Cello Suites to pop songs. He received the European Cultural Award in 2006, followed by the Erich Kästner Prize for Tolerance, Humanity, and International Understanding in 2011 and the TAURUS Culture Prize in 2018. Jan Vogler plays the 1707 “Castelbarco/Fau” Stradivari cello.

July 2026