Leonard Elschenbroich

Leonard Elschenbroich received the Leonard Bernstein award at the opening concert of the 2009 Schleswig- Holstein Festival, following his performance of the Brahms Double with Anne-Sophie Mutter under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach. Since then, he has excited interest as one the most charismatic cellists of his generation.

Leonard joined the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist scheme in 2012, a prestigious award offering performances and recordings with all the BBC orchestras, recitals at Wigmore Hall and The Sage, Gateshead, with all performances broadcast on the BBC. Leonard has appeared at the BBC Proms, most recently in 2013 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Charles Dutoit.

In the 2013/14 season he makes debuts with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with Andrew Litton and with the Washington National Orchestra with Christoph Eschenbach. He returns to the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Japan Philharmonic where he made his Tokyo debut in 2012 conducted by Alexander Lazarev. He will also appear with BBC Scottish Symphony and John Wilson, BBC Philharmonic and Vasily Sinaisky, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Christoph Koenig.

He has worked with a number of eminent conductors, including Dmitri Kitajenko, Valery Gergiev, Semyon Bychkov, Manfred Honeck and Christoph Eschenbach. As a soloist he has performed with the London Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, Swedish Radio Symphony, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Nagoya Philharmonic and Japan Philharmonic. He made his debut at the Musikverein in Vienna with the Dresden Staatskapelle and Christoph Eschenbach on their 2011 European tour. Leonard made his debut tour of China at the start of the 2012/2013 season with concerts in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Beijing.

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, the Rheingau, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Schleswig-Holstein Festival, 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 Colon and gave recitals in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Lima and Sao Paulo.

In 2013, his debut CD (Rachmaninov & Shostakovich (viola) sonatas) for Onyx Classics received 5 star reviews from The Telegraph, The Guardian, BBC Music Magazine (Choice of the Month), Pizzicato, Diapason, amongst others.

As a founding member of the Sitkovetsky Trio, Leonard will return this season to the Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, Gstaad Festival, and will debut at the Vancouver Reictal Series, before an extensive ‘Musica Viva’ tour of all major Australian cities.

Leonard also plays chamber music regularly with Nicola Benedetti and Alexei Grynyuk, performing at the BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, Usher Hall, Hong Kong International Festival, Istanbul Festival, Sala Sao Paulo, and Ravinia Festival.

Leonard Elschenbroich’s many awards include: the Leonard Bernstein Award, Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, Eugene Istomin Prize, Pro Europa prize, Landgraf von Hessen price of the Kronberg Academy, Nordmetall Prize of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, Firmenich Prize of the Verbier Festival. From 2004-2008 he was supported by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation, performing with her on a number of occasions, including a European tour.

Born in 1985 in Frankfurt, Leonard received a scholarship, aged ten, to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School in London. He later studied with Frans Helmerson at the Cologne Music Academy.

He plays a cello made by Matteo Goffriller "Leonard Rose" (Venice, 1693), on private loan.

Leonard Elschenbroich lives in London.

01/2014