© Andrej Grilc
BRYAN CHENG
/ CELLO
Following recent prize-winning successes at some of the world’s most prestigious international competitions, including Queen Elisabeth, Concours de Genève, and Paulo, Canadian-born, Berlin-based cellist Bryan Cheng has established himself as one of the most compelling young artists on the classical music scene.
He made his sold-out Carnegie Hall recital debut at age 14, his Elbphilharmonie debut aged 20 with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (Joshua Weilerstein), and in 2022, he was the first cellist to be awarded the coveted Prix Yves Paternot in recognition of the Verbier Festival Academy’s most promising and accomplished musician. He is the 2023 recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts’ Virginia Parker Prize, the nation’s highest honour for young musicians.
Recent highlights include his debut with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin at the Berliner Philharmonie in the „Debüt im Deutschlandfunk Kultur“ series (other noted artists who performed in this series at the beginning of their careers include Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, Jacqueline du Pré, Cecilia Bartoli, Isabelle Faust, Evgeny Kissin, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Renaud Capuçon, etc.), debuts with the Slovak and Calgary Philharmonic Orchestras, returns to the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the National Arts Centre Orchestra Ottawa, among others.
Upcoming major debuts include the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover (Michael Sanderling), Orchestre Métropolitain (Louis Langrée), hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt (Erina Yashima), Bochumer Symphoniker (Nil Venditti), Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra (Robert Moody), Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava (Daniel Raiskin), Orquesta Reino de Aragón (Ricardo Casero), Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, Presidential Symphony Orchestra Ankara, Romanian National Symphony Orchestra at Choriner Musiksommer, as well as returns to the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Cape Town Philharmonic, Johannesburg Philharmonic, Symphony Orchestra of India, Winnipeg Symphony, and I Musici de Montréal chamber orchestra, premiering a brand-new double concerto by Denis Gougeon.
In the 2023/24 concert season, Bryan Cheng is Artist-in-Residence of the “Banatul” Philharmonic Orchestra of Timisoara, Romania, presenting several symphonic and chamber concerts in the frame of the city’s 2023 European Capital of Culture season. He takes on the same role at Switzerland's Week-End Musical de Pully 2024, featuring both of his duos in addition to performing as soloist in Gulda's Cello Concerto.
Bryan Cheng has appeared with orchestras such as the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Helsinki Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, and with esteemed conductors such as Stéphane Denève, Martyn Brabbins, Susanna Mälkki, Alpesh Chauhan, Matthias Pintscher, Dalia Stasevska, Christian Arming, Yan-Pascal Tortelier, Giordano Bellincampi, Jonathan Darlington and Laurence Equilbey.
As member of the Cheng² Duo, CelloFellos, and as chamber musician, Bryan performs extensively across the globe. He has had the privilege of working with partners such as Gidon Kremer, Lars Vogt, Christian Tetzlaff, Angela Hewitt, Till Fellner, Viviane Hagner and Antje Weithaas.
Forthcoming recital highlights include performances with Sir András Schiff at the Verbier Festival and Wigmore Hall, debuts at the Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Kronberg Festival, Chamberfest Cleveland, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Banff International String Quartet Festival, and returns to Heidelberger Frühling, Beethovenfest Bonn, Ottawa Chamberfest, Montréal’s Salle Bourgie, Toronto’s Walter Hall, Halifax’s Cecilia Concert Series, Kingston’s Isabel Bader Centre, Chamberfest Cheboygan, and Festival of the Sound.
Bryan has released a trilogy of critically-acclaimed albums on German classical label audite: Russian Legends (2019), Violonchelo del fuego (2018), and Violoncelle français (2016), and his newest recital album Portrait (2023) on Centrediscs, featuring commissioned works and own arrangements by composers of diverse Asian heritage, was nominated for 2 JUNO awards.
Bryan plays the “Dubois” Antonio Stradivarius cello, Cremona, 1699 graciously provided to him by Canimex Inc. from Drummondville (Québec). He is a recipient of the Deutschlandstipendium and has been supported by the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation with generous multiyear scholarships. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Universität der Künste Berlin under the tutelage of Jens Peter Maintz and is now enrolled in the Professional Studies program at Germany’s Kronberg Academy in the studio of Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt.
BRYAN CHENG
Canada's Council for the Arts'
Virginia Parker Prize 2023
Prize Winner
Queen Elisabeth Competition
Concours de Genève
Paulo Competition
CONTACT
Dacian Predan-Hallabrin
dacian@predan-hallabrin.com
REPRESENTATION
European management
Partner managers:
Agence station bleue (Canada, USA)
MPC Music Management (Latin America)
VIDEOS
PHOTOS
PRESS
"Don Quixote" with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Daniel Raiskin
Viera Polakovičová, Opera Slovakia Magazin, October 2023
Cheng's mastery lies in his perfect tone, which was evident even in pianissimo passages, and his instrument's captivating sound was present, even in collaboration with his fellow cellists, as the composer intended. The cello section, or a portion of it, is pulled into the phenomenal sound. Cheng makes the cello sing, and his expression is deep and suggestive. Like Don Quixote, he is bewildered and lost, but, along with the composer, he is kind to the story's main character. In dialogue with individual orchestra members and the other soloist, violist Martin Ruman, he communicates with artistic passion and understanding.
"Don Quixote" with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Daniel Raiskin
Ivan Marton, klasikaplus.com, October 2023
After the intermission, the symphonic poem "Don Quixote," Op. 35, an iconic orchestral work by Richard Strauss inspired by the legendary chivalric novel by M. de Cervantes, was performed...the soloist was the twenty-six-year-old Canadian instrumentalist Bryan Cheng, a laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 2017 and currently a guest artist with many significant orchestras. He handled his part with remarkable elegance. It was a true pleasure to watch his long, melodically arched passages, especially in the fifth variation, " The knight's vigil," and in the playful sixth variation, " The Meeting with Dulcinea
Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto No.2 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
under Alpesh Chauhan at the Berliner Philharmonie
Schlatz, Opern- & Konzertkritik Berlin, June 2023
The 2nd Cello Concerto by Camille Saint-Saëns from 1902, which sounds so seductively light, casual and ingenious and is rightly finally finding its way into concert halls, features the young Canadian Bryan Cheng, whose slender and cultivated tone - flexible, firm, sonorous - should not only delight Saint-Saëns fans like me. Cheng performs the solo part with virtuosity, meandering between short tutti blocks. In the intervening Andante sostenuto, the gifted youngster plays so delicately sensitive and blissfully cantabile that every piano sounds wonderfully nuanced
Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with pianist Angela Hewitt, violinist Blake Pouliot, and conductor Laurence Equilbey leading the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Christophe Huss, Le Devoir (Montréal), November 2022
A great cellist: What was very good about the Pouliot-Cheng-Hewitt trio is that, as soon as Bryan Cheng spoke, we were reassured, because this interpretation was placed in the perspective of dialogue (the almost mischievous playing between Pouliot and Cheng) and reason...In this trio we really have to mention Bryan Cheng, the one who set the tone. The more we hear this cellist, the more we like this simplicity, this art of not forcing anything. And the 1699 Stradivarius cello lent to him by the Canimex Foun- dation is a marvel.
Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with pianist Angela Hewitt, violinist Blake Pouliot, and conductor Laurence Equilbey leading the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Ian Cochrane, Bachtrack.com, November 2022
the evening’s three soloists brought phenomenal energy and commitment to the Triple Concerto. Cheng’s passionate lyricism was a standout.
Dvorak Cello Concerto with the Brussels Philharmonic under Stéphane Denève
The Strad (UK), June 2022
Cheng shaped his performance with a constant sense of narrative, rising elatedly to match the first violin for a goosebump-inducing duet with the concertmaster to end the third movement [of the Dvorak Cello Concerto].
about Cheng’s performances at the Queen Elisabeth Competition, Brussels
La Libre (Belgium), May 2022
In Brussels, he distinguished himself with powerful, solar and cultivated playing, enveloped in opulent sonorities.
about Cheng’s performances at the Queen Elisabeth Competition, Brussels
La Soir (Belgium), May 2022
A full and elegant sound at the service of an easy and clear articulation, continuously attentive to the main line. Elegant, nuanced and gentle, an artist whose impulses always remain at the service of the true intention. Constant mastery, without pretentiousness, of technical demonstration
Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romand led by Georg Fritzsch
ARCHI Magazine (Italy), October 2021
The third to take the stage at Victoria Hall is 24-year-old Canadian Bryan Cheng...A beautiful performance, with a bit of late-romantic sentimentality and melancholy but no more than strictly necessary, without unnecessary flourishes and with very controlled dynamics. In the end he is the most applauded by the audience that fills the Victoria Hall.
Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto No.2 with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Christophe Huss, Le Devoir (Montréal), August 2021
...he is a fine artist, distinguished, of great class...Bryan Cheng made a brilliant debut in the amphitheater.