Kian Soltani


Kian Soltani is an Iranian cellist, born in Bregenz to a family of Persian musicians from Iran. He has held the post of principal cellist in Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, where he came to prominence performing Beethoven's Triple Concerto on the orchestra's 2015 tour.
He began playing the cello at the age of four and, at age 12 he began his studies with Ivan Monighetti at Basel Music Academy. He completed his studies as a member of the Young Soloist Programme at the Kronberg Academy in Taunus, Germany, and the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein. He is currently artist in residence at the Residentie Orchestra in The Hague for the 2018-2019 season.

Awards and Competitions

Soltani was awarded the Lucerne Festival's 2017 Credit Suisse Young Artist Award and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival’s 2017 Bernstein Award. He received the Luitpold Prize of the Festival Kissinger Sommer in 2014. In 2013, he won the first prize at the Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki, Finland. He has also won the first prize in the Karl Davidoff International Cello Competition in Latvia and the International Cello Competition 'Antonio Janigro' in Croatia, and became a member of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation in 2014.

Performances

Soltani has performed as a soloist with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Orchestre de Paris, Oslo Philharmonic, Residentie Orchestra and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and at the Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, Aix en Provence Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and the BBC Proms. On 25 August 2018 Soltani performed Meditation No. 3 from "Mass" by Leonard Bernstein as part of the celebration concert in honor of the composer's 100th birthday at the Tanglewood Festival.

Recordings

Kian Soltani signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 2017. His debut album Home was released in February 2018, and pairs works by Schubert and Schumann with folk song settings by Reza Vali and Soltani himself.