Leonard Elschenbroich | Cello
Born in 1985 in Frankfurt, Leonard Elschenbroich received a scholarship, aged ten, to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School in London. He subsequently studied with Frans Helmerson at the Cologne Music Academy.
Elschenbroich received the Leonard Bernstein award at the opening concert of the 2009 Schleswig-Holstein Festival, following his performance of the Brahms Double Concerto with Anne-Sophie Mutter under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach. Since then, he has been hailed as one of the most important and charismatic cellists of his generation.
He has received invitations from a number of eminent conductors, including Dmitri Kitayenko, Valery Gergiev, Semyon Bychkov, Manfred Honeck and Christoph Eschenbach. He was chosen as a BBC New Generation Artist in 2012, a prestigious award giving the opportunity to perform with all the BBC orchestras, give recitals at the Wigmore Hall and in the studio and play at the BBC Proms, with performances broadcast on the BBC.
As a soloist he has performed with the London Philharmonic, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, Swedish Radio Symphony, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Nagoya Philharmonic, Japan Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He made his debut at the Musikverein in Vienna with the Dresden Staatskapelle and Christoph Eschenbach on their 2011 European tour.
Leonard Elschenbroich has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Auditorium du Louvre, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Lucerne Festival, the Gstaad Festival, the Istanbul International Festival, and the Rheingau, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein Festivals, where he performed the complete Beethoven sonatas with Christoph Eschenbach. On tour in South America, he has performed with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic at the Teatro Colón and the Minas Gerais Orchestra in Belo Horizonte, as well as recitals in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Lima and São Paulo.
As a member of two sought-after piano trios, the Sitkovetsky Trio and with Nicola Benedetti and Alexei Grynyuk, he has played at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and Bath Festival, as well as several times at the Wigmore Hall, at the BBC Proms and the Hong Kong International Festival. As a chamber musician he has appeared several times at the Verbier Festival and with Gidon Kremer at the Kronberg and Lockenhaus Festivals.
Leonard Elschenbroich’s many awards include the Leonard Bernstein Award, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, the Eugene Istomin Prize, the Pro Europa prize, the Landgraf von Hessen prize of the Kronberg Academy, the NORDMETALL prize of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and the Firmenich Prize of the Verbier Festival. From 2004–8 he was a fellow of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation, performing with her on a number of occasions, including a European tour.
He plays a cello made by Matteo Goffriller ‘Leonard Rose’ (Venice, 1693), on private loan. Leonard Elschenbroich lives in London.
Leonard Eschenbroich
www.leonard-elschenbroich.com
www.icartists.co.uk