Jan Vogler

Violoncello

“Vogler shaped the cantilenas expertly and nailed the fast runs of the final movement” (Musical America)

“In the expansive, marvelously pensive slow movement, he entranced the ear with long-held notes that began with a lack of vibrato that implied emotional nakedness, but sweetened in the final nanosecond with a bit of pulsing - just as your ears insisted on it.” (Philadelphia Inquirer)

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).

PERFORMANCES
A major highlight of Jan’s 2012 summer calendar were his performances of Bach’s Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello at MDR Musiksommer and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.  The 2012-2013 season features  a return to the New York Philharmonic for performances of Bloch’s Schelomo conducted by Alan Gilbert both in New York and on tour, Mansurian’s Cello Concerto with the Dresden Philharmonic, Schnittke’s Cello concerto No. 1 with the Bavarian State Orchestra, Strauss’s  Don Quixote with the  Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Kent Nagano, works by Haydn, Saint-Saëns, Dvořák, and Jimi Hendrix with the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, and an appearance at the Leipzig Jazz Festival in a program featuring Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint and Jimi Hendrix’s Machine Gun. Jan will also be heard in recital with pianists Hélène Grimaud and Martin Stadtfeld.

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
The 2011-2012 season included performances of Strauss’ Don Quixote, Op. 35 with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and 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 Orchestra, and recitals in Paris and New York with Hélène Grimaud.

DISCOGRAPHY
A prolific and multi-award-winning recording artist, Jan records exclusively for SONY Classical. “My Tunes 2”, a companion to his acclaimed 2007 release “My Tunes,” continues Jan’s exploration of his favourite cello pieces and features works by Paganini, Kreisler, Rimsky-Korsakov, Fauré and Wagner. Other recent recordings include J.S. Bach’s Gambensonaten with pianist Martin Stadtfeld and two CDs with The Knights and Eric Jacobsen: “New Worlds” on which Jan performs Dvořák’s Silent Woods (2010) and “Experience: Live from New York” (2009), which includes Shostakovich’s famous Cello Concerto No. 1, and Machine Gun, by Jimi Hendrix in a special arrangement for cello and orchestra. Jan’s other releases for SONY Classical include the multiple award-winning “The Secrets of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto” with the New York Philharmonic conducted by David Robertson, “Concerti Brillanti” featuring 18^th- Century concertos, and “TANGO!” with the Moritzburg Festival Artists that spotlights the music of Astor Piazzolla.

He has recorded a series of CD’s with the Moritzburg Festival artists including Schubert’s Trout quintet (2011),  the award-winning Mozart Divertimento E flat major K 563, Suite of "Le Nozze di Figaro" (ECHO Klassik 2006) and a live recording of concertos by E. Carter and U. Zimmermann with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra (NEOS), the Cello Concerti by Barber, Korngold, Bürger (Berlin Classics), and Schumann and Fauré Piano Quintets (Sony Classical).

AWARDS
In 2011 Jan Vogler received the Erich Kästner Prize for tolerance, humanity and international understanding. He has also received the European Cultural Prize for his contribution to the cultural community of Germany. Jan’s recordings have won the Echo Klassik Award, the Pizzicato Supersonic Award (2011, 2008, 2006), Le Diapason d’Or, and the “Choc” de la Monde de la Musique.

BACKGROUND
A cello prodigé at age 6, 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, a position he left 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 co-founder and Artistic Director of the Moritzburg Chamber Music Festival.

Jan Vogler plays the 1707-1710 Stradivarius 'Ex Castelbarco/Fau' cello and 1721 Domenico Montagnana cello ‘Ex-Hekking’.

Please find further information here: www.janvogler.com

Download this biography here (pdf).