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Focus on Bang on a Can

In the spotlights this Cello Biennale: Bang on a Can! The famous composers trio from New York, with Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe, who never see their music as separate from what’s happening in society. Thirty years ago, still very unknown, they started a marathon for new music in a small stage in Downtown […]

Registration National Cello Competition open until 1st of June

“Competitions are for horses, not for artists”, said Béla Bartók. But we know better. Winning a competition often is a stepping-stone to the major stages, the making of a first album, publicity among the audience, in other words the start of a good career. This was the path for the first six winners of the […]

Laureate Anton Mecht Spronk in Het Concertgebouw

It is going well with Anton Mecht Spronk, laureate of the National Cello Competition 2014! He won the Swiss Migros Kulturprozent competition two years in a row and as part of that he will perform as a soloist with the Rococovariations in Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam on Sunday 6 May. It’s a concert with a Swiss touch: an […]

Hello Cello Orchestra almost full!

Also this year the registrations for the Hello Cello Orchestra are going very fast. On the 16th of April the registration opened and already now there are only a few free spots! The Hello Cello Orchestra consists of 160 cello playing children and young adults from all over the Netherlands. This time the Biennale invites […]

Festival highlights

Big names, old friends, and new faces. The programme will again include many highlights with musicians, ensembles, and orchestras from 27 different countries. The artists in residence are early music specialist and Viola da Gamba player Jordi Savall and the Italian cello phenomenon Giovanni Sollima. All the way from New York, the festival welcomes new and exciting cello music by Bang on a Can, the world famous composer trio consisting of Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, who always have a way of connecting their compositions to today’s society.

Returning to the festival are solid audience favourites like Jean-Guihen Queyras, Mischa Maisky, Alban Gerhardt, Nicolas Altstaedt, and Colin Carr, along with young stars reinvited by the festival like Anastasia Kobekina, Harriet Krijgh, and Kian Soltani. Many cellists will appear at the Cello Biennale Amsterdam for the very first time, such as American/Israeli cellist Matt Haimovitz, Spanish master Arnau Tomàs, Reinhard Latzko – one of today’s most acclaimed cello pedagogues from Germany – and the young Sheku Kanneh-Mason from the UK.

New: CELLOFEST

This festival introduces the all new CELLOFEST: Eight evenings in Bimhuis, each featuring interesting performances from the international non-classical cello world. All around the world, people are experimenting with the cello. Cello players are creating their own music, far removed from the classical repertoire and sometimes even the classical way of playing the cello. Think cello-playing singer-songwriters, world music, jazz and pop musicians, improvisers, and video and performance artists from the USA, Canada, South Afrika, Iran, Germany, Austria, Sweden, France, England, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Cello Biënnale 2018

What will the Cello Biennale 2018 look like? What will the theme be, what’s new, and which cellists, orchestras, and ensembles will appear? Much became clear during the Sneak Preview on Friday, November 10, in the Muziekgebouw. Artist in residence for the Biennale in 2018, Giovanni Sollima, the winner of the National Cello Competition, Alexander […]

Program NCC 2018

The program for the National Cello Competition 2018 has been announced! Click here to view the programme.

Alexander Warenberg plays in Oosterbeek

Alexander Warenberg, First Prize winner and winner of the Audience Prize in the National Cello Competition 2016, will play a completely Russian programme with pianist Yang Yang Cai, featuring cello sonatas by Shostakovich and Rachmaninov.

Christmas 2017: Hallelujah!

The Cello Biennale would like to wish you happy holidays and a great new year filled with lots of beautiful music!

Giovanni Sollima, artist in residence at the next Cello Biennale, performs Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah with Amsterdam Sinfonietta and Jordi Savall will appear no less than four times during the next Cello Biennale.