At least since winning the first prize in the 59th International Ard Music Competition in Munich and also the audience prize, the Munich Chamber Orchestra Prize and the Oehms Classics Prize, Julian Steckel is one of today’s most eagerly sought and versatile cellists.
After many years with Ulrich Voss, Julian Steckel studied with Gustav Rivinius, as one of Boris Pergamenschikov’s last students, and with Heinrich Schiff and Antje Weithaas.
Before winning the Ard Competition, he was a winner at the Rostropovich Competition in Paris, the Grand Prix Feuermann in Berlin and the International Pablo Casals Competition in Kronberg and was also awarded the Verbier Festival Prize and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship Award in London. Julian Steckel recently received the Echo Klassic Award 2012 for his recording of the cello concertos by Korngold, Bloch and Goldschmidt.
He has given concerts as a soloist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Berlin, Stuttgart, Saarbrucken, Copenhagen and Warsaw, the Orchestre de Paris, the Kremerata Baltica, the Franz-Liszt Chamber Orchestra of Budapest and the Zurich and Stuttgart chamber orchestras, under such conductors as Sir Roger Norrington, Mario Venzago, Christopher Hogwood, Heinrich Schiff, Andrey Boreyko, Michael Sanderling and John Storgards.
These appearances have taken him to the Philharmonie and the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Herkulessaal and Philharmonie im Gasteig in Munich, the Laieszhalle Hamburg, the Salle Pleyel and the Théâtre du Chatelet Paris, the Tonhalle Zurich, the KKL Lucerne and the Seoul Arts Center. As a chamber musician he has performed with Lars Vogt, Christian Tetzlaff, Antje Weithaas, Isabelle Faust, Baiba and Lauma Skride and Alexander Lonquich as well as with the Ebène, Vogler and Guarneri quartets, at the Spannungen Festival Heimbach, and the Lucerne, Ludwigsburg, Bonn, Schwetzingen, Zermatt, Mondsee, Cambrai and Menton festivals.
His recording of the cello concertos by Goldschmidt and Korngold, as well as Bloch’s Schelomo, with the Rheinische Philharmonic Orchestra Koblenz/Daniel Raiskin, released in 2011 on the Avi Music label, has received unanimous praise from the international music press.
The previous successful album (2009) including all Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s works for cello and piano with his regular duo-partner Paul Rivinius, has now been followed by a CD with works by French composers. He has recently been appointed Professor of Cello at the University of Music and Theatre Rostock.
Julian Steckel plays an instrument by Urs W. Mächler (Speyer 2005).