Kian Soltani

Cellist Kian Soltani has emerged from Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, in which he has served as principal cellist and begun a significant solo career. Signed to the Deutsche Grammophon label, he has been exceptionally active as a recording artist, issuing six albums on the label in three years.
Soltani was born in Bregenz, Austria, on June 3, 1992. He is of Iranian background and came from a family of musicians. Soltani took up the cello at age four and showed major talent as a child, enrolling at the Basel Music Academy when he was 12. His teacher there was Ivan Monighetti. Soltani moved on to the Kronberg Academy in Germany’s Taunus region, where he benefited from scholarship support from the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation and was a member of the Young Soloists’ Program. He also studied at Liechtenstein’s International Music Academy. He also studied at Liechtenstein’s International Music Academy. Soltani made an impressive debut at age 19 at the Goldener Saal at Vienna’s venerable Musikverein society, following it up with first prizes at the Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki, the Karl Davidoff Competition in Latvia, and the Antonio Janigro Competition in Croatia.
After joining the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, conductor Daniel Barenboim’s pioneering ensemble uniting Israeli and Arab musicians, Soltani took a major role when he appeared as soloist in the Beethoven Triple Concerto, Op. 56, with Barenboim on piano, during the orchestra’s 2015 tour, performing at the Lucerne and Salzburg Festivals and the Waldbühnen summer concert in Berlin. That led to other solo appearances at the BBC Proms and with such groups as the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, and the Orchestre de Paris. Soltani took a solo role in Strauss’ Don Quixote under Barenboim in the West-Eastern Divan’s 2017 tour and made a series of major appearances in Germany, Austria, and France during the 2017-2018 season. In 2017, he was signed to the Deutsche Grammophon label, and early in 2018, he released his debut album, Home, featuring works by Schubert and Schumann as well as his own folk song settings and those by Iranian composer Reza Vali. Soltani continued to be prominently featured in West-Eastern Divan Orchestra concerts into the early 2020s, and his solo career has grown as he has made concerto appearances with such groups as the Munich Philharmonic, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony. His chamber music appearances have been notable as he has collaborated with Daniel and Michael Barenboim in trios, and with other players, including Lahav Shani and Renaud Capuçon. In 2020, Soltani released two albums, one of Beethoven's piano trios with the Barenboims and one of Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, with the Staatskapelle Dresden. Soltani returned with the film music album Cello Unlimited in 2021. ~ James Manheim