About Us
Our Management and Artistic TeamBIOGRAPHY
Benedict Kloeckner
Cello
Appointed Visiting Producer
Born in 1989, Benedict Kloeckner is recipient of the European Broadcasting Union Award (Bratislava), the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann (Berlin), Animato International Soloist Competition (Zürich), the Nicolas Firmenich Prize (Verbier Festival, Switzerland) and First Prize at the Manhattan International Music Competition New York. He was also awarded the European Culture Prize by the European Culture Foundation.
As a soloist, Benedict has performed with orchestras worldwide including the NDR Radio Symphony, German Radio, German State and Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Kremerata Baltica, the Slovakian Radio Orchestra, Porto Symphony, and Amsterdam, Berlin and Prague Chamber Orchestras, under the baton of conductors including Michael Sanderling, Howard Griffiths, Heinrich Schiff, Simon Gaudenz, Daniel Raiskin, Ingo Metzmacher, and Karl Heinz Steffens. Benedict performs regularly at such venues as Berlin's Philharmoniker and Konzerthaus, the Festspielhaus Baden Baden, Tonhalle Zurich, Laeizhalle Hamburg, "Mozarteum" Salzburg, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Rudolfinum Prague, John F. Kennedy Center, Symphony Hall Chicago, Carnegie Hall, Barbican Centre and Seoul Arts Center.
He enjoys playing chamber music with such partners as Sir András Schiff, Anne Sophie Mutter, Gidon Kremer, Christoph Eschenbach, Anna Fedorova, Antoine Tamestit and the Carducci String Quartet, and is regularly invited to renowned music festivals: Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Beethovenfest Bonn, Ludwigsburg, Schwetzingen, Gstaad and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to name but a few. A keen interpreter of contemporary music, Benedict Kloeckner performed Wolfgang Rihm's cello concerto Temptation in Munich and the composer's duo concerto in autumn 2016. He recorded, for Genuin in co-operation with the SWR, the complete works for cello and piano by Howard Blake, for whom he has been dedicatee of numerous works.
This season he makes his debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall, London, performing Blake's cello concert Diversions. Further highlights of the 17/18 season include two tours to the US, Hindemith's cello concerto with Ingo Metzmacher and the Orchester des Nationaltheater Mannheim, Schumann with the Istanbul State Symphony, a tour with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie (Beethoven's Triple Concerto), and a chamber music concert at KKL Lucerne.
Benedict has recorded extensively: a CD of Italian concertos by Roberto Molinelli and Gian Carlos Menotti at the invitation of Gidon Kremer, with the Kremerata Baltica, conducted by Heinrich Schiff; the Schumann concerto with the German String Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Michael Sanderling (Genuin), which received high acclaim from international press and radio; rare works by Spanish composers (Hänssler Classic); pieces for cello by Rihm, Strauss and Poulenc (Movimentos Edition), which was nominated for the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik. He released a second recording with regular chamber music partner Anna Fedorova in 2017 of Franck and Chopin's sonatas for cello and piano.
From 2002 to 2009, Benedict Kloeckner studied with Martin Ostertag at the Hochschule für Musik, Karlsruhe. He furthered his studies with Frans Helmerson and Gary Hoffman within the Kronberg Academy Masters program, with generous support from the Angela Winkler-Scholarship. He has been awarded additional scholarships from the German National Merit Foundation, the foundation of the State Bank of Baden Württemberg, the Oscar und Vera Ritter Stiftung, and the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.
Benedict Kloeckner plays an Italian cello by Francesco Rugeri (Cremona 1680), kindly on loan to him by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.