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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.

Cello Biennale already presented a public masterclass!

In collaboration with the Muziekgebouw and the Conservatory of Amsterdam, the Cello Biennale is organizing a number of masterclasses outside the festival period. These masterclasses are connected to cello recitals in the Muziekgebouw by internationally acclaimed cellists. Three master students of Dutch conservatoires will perform in these masterclasses.

Start in Splendor: Ainsi la nuit

The Cello Biennale and Splendor Amsterdam gave a young cellist carte blanche for one evening in Splendor: Kalle de Bie won the Start in Splendor Prize during the National Cello Competition 2016. Ainsi la Nuit was the result. Featuring Kalle de Bie (cello), Cordelia Paw and Tim Brackman (violin), Martin Moriarty (viola), Nadav Katan and Seán Morgan-Rooney […]

Impression Sneak Preview Cello Biennale 2018

Watch the impression video of the Sneak Preview, in which Giovanni Sollima, Victor Julien-Laferrière, Alexander Warenberg, Mela Marie Spaemann, Chesaba, Adam Laloum, Candida Thompson and Amsterdam Sinfonietta reveal what is going to happen during the Cello Biennale 2018!

Theo Loevendie writes commissioned work for National Cello Competition

The father of Dutch composition, Theo Loevendie (87), is composing the commissioned work for cello solo, which will be performed by each participant of the National Cello Competition 2018. The National Cello Competition is taking place for the seventh time, and is part of the Cello Biennale. The international jury is formed by Reinhard Latzko […]