Kian Soltani

Born in Bregenz, Austria, in 1992 to a family of Persian musicians, Kian Soltani began playing the cello at age four and joined Ivan Monighetti’s class at the Basel Music Academy at the age of twelve. He gained greater attention in 2013 as the winner of the International Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki and was chosen as an Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation scholarship holder in 2014. Soltani completed his further studies as a member of the Young Soloist Programme at Germany’s Kronberg Academy and received additional musical training at the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein.

In 2017, Soltani won Germany’s celebrated Leonard Bernstein Award and was awarded the prestigious Credit Suisse Young Artist Award. In the same year, Soltani signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. His first disc, “Home”, comprising works for cello and piano by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and Reza Vali, was released to international acclaim in 2018.
Soltani has since recorded discs including the Antonín Dvořák and Peter I. Tchaikovsky Piano Trios with Lahav Shani and Renaud Capuçon and Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim in August 2020.

In 2022, he won the Innovative Listening Experience Award at the coveted Opus Klassik Awards, Germany’s most prestigious classical music prize for “Cello Unlimited”.

His recent orchestral highlights include his residency in 2023/24 with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and concerts with the NDR Elbphilharmonieorchester, Staatskapelle Berlin, WDR Sinfonieorchester, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. As a recitalist, he continues to appear in prestigious halls and series including at the Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin; Wigmore Hall, London; Musikverein and Konzerthaus Vienna and he appears regularly at festivals such as Verbier Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Dvořák Prague Festival, Bregenzer Festspiele, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Grafenegg Festival and Kissinger Sommer – Internationales Musikfestival.

In the 2024/25 season, Soltani makes several returns including with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Lahav Shani, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Cello Biënnale Amsterdam and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Besides, he will make his debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and become artist-in-residence at Fränkischer Sommer Festival.
As a recitalist, he will tour again with Benjamin Grosvenor, Hyeyoon Park and Timothy Ridout and embark on several trio concerts with Renaud Capuçon and Mao Fujita. In celebration of the Vienna Symphony’s 125th anniversary, he will tour Austria with the orchestra, performing the world premiere of Marcus Nigsch’s concerto written for him. He will also tour with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta in Asia as well as with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin across Europe.

Since October 2023, he holds a position as a professor of cello at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria.