Guest ArtistsAndrei Ioniţă, cello

Cellist Andrei Ioniţă, born in 1994 in Bucharest, began taking piano lessons at the age of five and received his first cello lesson three years later. He studied under Ani-Marie Paladi at the “Iosif Sava” Music School in Bucharest and Professor Jens Peter Maintz at the Universität der Künste, Berlin.

In the past few years, Mr. Ioniţă has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Cadogan Hall in London, the Chamber Music Hall of the Berliner Philharmonie and the Gasteig and Herkulesaal in Munich. In 2015 he gave his debut in the Berlin Philharmonic as soloist with the Deutsche Symphonieorchester Berlin. The 2016-17 season featured further major debuts with the Munich Philharmonic, MDR Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2017-18 Mr. Ioniţă will appear with, among others, the BBC Philharmonic and Hallé Orchestras, MDR Sinfonieorchester, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic and NFM Symphony Orchestra Wrocław. He will give recitals in venues including Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Théâtre de la Ville, Paris and Konzerthaus Berlin.

A BBC New Generation Artist for the period 2016 to 2018, Mr. Ioniţă is also a laureate of many international competitions. In June 2013 he was awarded First Prize at the Aram Khachaturian International Competition; in September 2014 he won Second Prize and the Special Prize for the interpretation of a commissioned composition at the International ARD Music Competition in Munich. He received the Second Prize at the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann 2014 in Berlin two months later. Mr. Ioniţă won international recognition in June 2015 as the winner of the First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, while in 2016 he won the Luitpold prize which is awarded each year by the Friends of the Kissinger Sommer for the best young artist.

Andrei Ioniţă is a scholarship recipient of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and performs on a violoncello made by Giovanni Battista Rogeri from Brescia in 1671, generously on loan from the foundation.