Kian Soltani

Born in 1992 in Bregenz, Austria, to a family of Persian musicians, Kian Soltani began his cello studies at the age of twelve with Ivan Monighetti at the Basel Music Academy. He completed his training with Frans Helmerson at the Kronberg Academy. He acquired additional significant inspirations  as a recipient of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation scholarship. After enjoying his first successes at the Karl Davidoff and Antonio Janigro Competitions in Latvia and Croatia, respectively, Soltani won the International Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki in 2013; he was awarded the Luitpold Prize at the Kissinger Sommer in 2014, and, in 2017, the Leonard Bernstein Award at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. He received the highly endowed Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2018, which also earned him an appearance with the Vienna Philharmonic at Lucerne Festival, where he played Dvořák’s Cello Concerto. At the age of 19, Kian Soltani made his debuts at the Vienna Musikverein and at the Schubertiade in Hohenems. Since then, he has performed with the London, Helsinki, and Royal Liverpool Philharmonics; the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich; the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras; the Staatskapelle Berlin; the Orchestre de Paris; the SWR Symphony Orchestra; and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. In the 2020-21 season, he made his debuts with the Munich Philharmonic and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Kian Soltani regularly collaborates with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim, with whom he has appeared as a soloist at the Salzburg Festival, the BBC Proms in London, and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. In 2018, he released his first solo CD, titled Home, which features works by Schubert and Schumann as well as Persian folk music; his interpretation of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Staatskapelle Berlin under Barenboim appeared in 2020. Kian Soltani performs on an instrument by Antonio Stradivari built in 1694.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on 17 August 2015 performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Guy Braunstein, Daniel Barenboim, and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.

July 2021