Bryan Cheng

Soloists and Duos   Artists with Orchestra  

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...

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 career include Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, Jacqueline Du Pré, Cecilia Bartoli, Isabelle Faust, Evgeny Kissin, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Daniel Hope, Renaud Capuçon, etc.), returns to the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the National Arts Centre Orchestra Ottawa, among others.

Upcoming debuts include the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover with Michael Sanderling, Orchestre Métropolitain with Louis Langrée, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Bochumer Symponiker, Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of India, Romanian National Symphony Orchestra, as well as returns to the Johannesburg Philharmonic, Cape Town Philharmonic, 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, Susanna Mälkki, Alpesh Chauhan, Matthias Pintscher, Dalia Stasevska, Christian Arming, 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. 

Recital highlights include performances at the Verbier Festival with Sir András Schiff and cellist Alban Gerhardt, at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Berliner Philharmonie’s Kammermusiksaal, Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Heidelberger Frühling, Beethovenfest Bonn, Kronberg’s Casals Forum, Brussels’ Flagey, Chamberfest Cleveland, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Millersville University,Vancouver Recital Society, Banff International String Quartet Festival,Toronto’s Walter Hall, Orford Musique, Halifax’s Cecilia Concert Series, Montréal Salle Bourgie, Kingston’s Isabel Bader Centre, and tours in Canada, the USA, Switzerland, Belgium, and South Africa.

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 album Portrait on Centrediscs, featuring commissioned works and own arrangements by composers of diverse Asian heritage, was released in October 2023.

Bryan plays the Bonjour v. 1696 Stradivarius cello from the Canada Council’s Musical Instrumental Bank. 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 and is now enrolled in the Professional Studies program at Germany’s Kronberg Academy, in the studio of Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt.

© Andrej Grilc

Reviews

About his performance with the Brussels Philharmonic in the finals of Queen Elisabeth Competition:
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].

— The Strad (UK)

The internationally acclaimed, Berlin-based soloist is one of those wonderful artists who oozes confidence and conviction, knowing exactly what he wants to say with his music-making, and how to bring his ideas to life with plenty of personality and pizzazz.

The highly expressive player’s knack at easily slipping between the estimated 20-minute work’s [Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations] shifting moods were displayed throughout, from the second variation’s playful dialogue with orchestra as a particular highlight, to his soulful, recitative-like cadenzas worthy of an opera diva… Cheng’s richly resonant tone particularly in his lowest register allowed his lyrical, cantilena lines to sing during the sixth variation, while skipping through quicksilver runs during the fourth, performed with bulls-eye rhythmic acuity.

— Winnipeg Free Press (Canada)

About his concert with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, November 11, 2022:
The great thing about the Pouliot-Cheng-Hewitt trio was that from the moment Bryan Cheng took the floor, we were reassured that this performance was from the perspective of dialogue (the almost mischievous games between Pouliot and Cheng) and reason. No one was going to try to be a big shot here, and all three soloists were playing in the same register of warm dialogue, which suits Angela Hewitt very well indeed.
In this trio, Bryan Cheng must really be mentioned as 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 provided to him by the Canimex Foundation is a pure marvel.

— Christophe Huss, Le Devoir

About his concert at the Festival de Lanaudière, Québec, Summer 2021:
… he is a fine artist, distinguished, of great class… Bryan Cheng made a brilliant debut in the amphitheater.

— Christophe Huss, Le Devoir

… Bryan Cheng on his Tassini cello achieves powerfully contoured bass tones and the finest, tenderest heights with stupendous dynamics, sounding always cantabile, always beautiful, always perfectly in tune, and absolutely captivating.

— Pizzicato Magazine (Luxembourg)

Bryan Cheng [recipient of the 2017 Michael Measures Prize] has shown a depth of sensitivity and maturity that will secure him a distinctive place in the world of classical music.

— Canada Council for the Arts (Canada)

Cheng sings the melancholy without schmaltz; the bitterness he gets exactly. Thus de Falla’s “Siete canciones” become razor-sharp character pieces and Cassadó’s solo suite an affair of austere, severe, yet dreamy beauty.

— Harald Eggebrecht, Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany)

Bryan combines a dark, robust tone with jaw-dropping bravura…

— The WholeNote (Canada)

brilliant…appear[ing] in fresh colours and afford[ing] much pleasure.

— The Times (United Kingdom)

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.

— Le Soir (Belgium)

Videos

Queen Elisabeth Competition, Finale 2022

Concours de Genève, Cello Semi-Final 2021

With the OSM | Dvořák Cello Concerto

Haydn, Cello Concerto / Symphonieorchester der UdK Berlin

Dvorak, Cello Concerto

Beethoven, Sonata No. 4

Shostakovich, Cello Concerto No. 1

Bach, Cello Suite No. 3

Brahms, Cello Sonata No.1

Photos

© Andrej Grilc
© Andrej Grilc
© Andrej Grilc
© Andrej Grilc
© Andrej Grilc
© Harald Hoffmann
© Swanhild Kruckelmann
© Harald Hoffmann
© Harald Hoffmann

Calendar

April

16 April 2024
21 April 2024

Bryan Cheng - Mooredale Concerts

Toronto, Ontario, Canada
25 April 2024
27 April 2024

Bryan Cheng - Espace DCL - L'Anglicane

Lévis, Québec, Canada
28 April 2024

Bryan Cheng - Centre culturel

Beloeil, Québec, Canada

May

1 May 2024

Bryan Cheng - Kronberg Academy

Kronberg, Deutschland
11 May 2024
15 May 2024
19 May 2024

June

12 June 2024

Bryan Cheng - Banatul Philharmonic Hall

Timișoara, Romania
14 June 2024

Bryan Cheng - Banatul Philharmonic Orchestra of Timisoara - Banatul Philharmonic Hall

Timișoara, Romania

July

18 July 2024

Bryan Cheng - Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava

Opava, Czech Republic
27 July 2024

August

9 August 2024
17 August 2024
30 August 2024

September

1 September 2024

January

23 January 2025
24 January 2025
26 January 2025

March

15 March 2025

Bryan Cheng - Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Contacts

Agent Canada and United States   Annick-Patricia Carrière 1 514-529-5717