Jan Vogler, cello

Jan Vogler

Recognized for his “playing of articulate brilliance” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) Jan Vogler’s distinguished career has featured him with renowned conductors Valery Gergiev, Lorin Maazel, Fabio Luisi, David Robertson and Manfred Honeck and internationally acclaimed orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, Montreal and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony. A passionate recitalist and chamber musician, he performs regularly with pianists Hélène Grimaud and Martin Stadtfeld and with violinist Mira Wang.

With a strong classical foundation, Jan Vogler embraces the work of his contemporaries and welcomes the process of experimentation, expansion and refinement in his performance style. A dedicated champion of contemporary music, he regularly premieres new works. Recent performance include compositions by renowned composers Tigran Mansurian (WDR Sinfonieorchester conducted by Semyon Bychkov), John Harbison (with Mira Wang, the Boston Symphony Orchestra) and Udo Zimmermann (Bavarian Radio Orchestra).

Recent seasons have featured performances of Bach’s Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello at MDR Musiksommer and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a return to the New York Philharmonic for performances of Bloch’s Schelomo (Hebrew Rapsody) conducted by Alan Gilbert both in New York and on tour, Brahms’s Double Concerto with violinist James Ehnes and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano, Mansurian’s Cello Concerto with the Dresden Philharmonic, Schnittke’s Concerto No. 1 for Cello and Orchestra with the Bavarian State Orchestra, Strauss’s Don Quixote with the Deutsches Sinfonieorchester and Kent Nagano. Strauss’ Don Quixote, Op. 35 with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Fabio Luisi, the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Munich Philharmonic and Lorin Maazel, and with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Honegger’s Cello Concerto with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, and recitals in Paris, Brussels and New York with Hélène Grimaud and with pianist Martin Stadtfeld in Bonn.

A prolific and multi-award-winning recording artist, Jan records exclusively for SONY Classical. Recent releases include the Schumann album “Dichterliebe” with Hélène Grimaud, and his critically acclaimed and award-winning recording of Bach’s Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello (2012). Jan’s recordings have won the Echo Klassik Award, the Pizzicato Supersonic Award (2011, 2008, 2006, 2013), Le Diapason d’Or, and the “Choc” de la Monde de la Musique.

A cello prodigy at age six, Jan first studied with his father Peter Vogler and subsequently with Josef Schwab in Berlin, Heinrich Schiff and Siegfried Palm. At the age of 20 he won the principal cello position of the Staatskapelle Dresden and became the youngest concertmaster in the history of this orchestra. However, his dream of a solo career gradually became reality and he left his position in Dresden in 1997. That same year, certain that the roots of old European music-making were to be found in America, he moved to New York, where he has remained sharing his home with his wife, violinist Mira Wang and their two children.

The modern representative of the German cello tradition which goes back to Emanuel Feuermann and Julius Klengel, Jan shares his time between Dresden, Germany and New York City, combining the roots of his traditional musical education with a contemporary style of interpretation.

Jan Vogler is the General Director of the Dresden Musikfestspiele and founder and Artistic Director of the Moritzburg Chamber Music Festival. He plays the 1707-1710 Stradivarius 'Ex Castelbarco/Fau' cello and 1721 Domenico Montagnana cello ‘Ex-Hekking’.