Contact
Kerstin Altka@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-235
Heike Wilmshw@karstenwitt.com +49 30 214 594-236
Welcome Julian Steckel! We start our collaboration with the cellist, who launched his impressive international career in 2010 as winner of the ARD Music Competition, now performing chamber music and orchestral concerts worldwide.
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String quintet No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 87
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Grande sestetto concertante
Julian Steckel, violoncello
Leonkoro Quartet
Takehiro Konoe, viola
Ludwig van Beethoven, 7 Variations in E-flat minor WoO 46 for Piano and Cello
Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonata for Violoncello and Piano No. 3 in A major Op.69
Alfred Schnittke, Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1
Frédéric Chopin, Polonaise brillante in C major op.3, cello and piano
Boris Kusnezow, piano
Antonín Dvořák, Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B minor Op. 104
Josef Suk, Symphony in E major Op. 14
Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich
Tomáš Netopil, conductor
Camille Saint-Saëns, Concerto for violoncello and orchestra No. 1 in A minor op. 33
Orquesta de Extremadura
Izabelė Jankauskaitė, conductor
Joseph Haydn, Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra No. 2 in D major, Hob VIIb:2
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Karl-Heinz Steffens, conductor
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Ana María Patiño-Osorio, conductor
Friedrich Gulda, Concerto for Violoncello and Wind Orchestra
Orchestre Symphonique de Québec OSQ
Clemens Schuldt, conductor
“A musician who lets the notes dance rather than whirl, an exceptional cellist who draws out things in the music that perhaps even the composers never knew were there.” Fono Forum
Always ready to place himself wholly in the service of the music and his audience, cellist Julian Steckel delves deeply into a score to uncover the inner connections and forces that hold a piece together. His energetic power stems from a cultivated simplicity that enables effortless playing and seemingly limitless technical ability. “As an interpreter I trust my inner landscape more and more and let the audience in. It is a vulnerability that ultimately makes you stronger,” he says.
Julian Steckel’s solo career was launched when he won the ARD International Music Competition in 2010. Since then he has appeared with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Munich Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, working with conductors including Iván Fischer, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Roger Norrington, Nicholas Collon, Fabien Gabel, John Storgårds, Lahav Shani, Gustavo Gimeno, Katharina Wincor and Daniele Rustioni.
Last season he opened the Dvořák Festival in Prague together with the Bamberger Symphoniker and Jakub Hrůša, and made his debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Ruth Reinhardt. Further highlights included Walton’s Cello Concerto with Tianyi Lu in Leipzig, Strauss’s Don Quixote with the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra and Elias Grandy in Japan, as well as numerous chamber music appearances.
Chamber music – a constant source of inspiration and the communicative backbone of his musicianship – has brought him together with partners such as Janine Jansen, Christian Tetzlaff, Veronika Eberle, Vilde Frang, Sharon Kam, Antoine Tamestit, Lars Vogt, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Paul Rivinius, Martin Helmchen, Timothy Ridout, and the Modigliani, Armida and Ébène Quartets. Steckel also began the current season with a strong focus on chamber music: as artistic director of the vielsaitig festival in Füssen, he presented a multifaceted programme in the town known as a historical centre of European lute and violin making. Performances with distinguished partners such as Carolin Widmann, Paul Meyer, Nils Mönkemeyer and Amihai Grosz took him to the Alte Oper Frankfurt and on a tour of Japan.
This was followed in the present season by concerts with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony under Tabita Berglund, performing Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto, and by a monumental solo project: all of Bach’s Cello Suites, performed in Shanghai and Beijing. He opens 2026 with a concert with the Leonkoro Quartet at the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, before returning to the Musikverein Vienna and Festspielhaus St. Pölten to perform Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Tonkünstler Orchestra and Tomáš Netopil – a work he will also play this season with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under Ana María Patiño-Osorio. He can additionally be heard with Saint-Saëns at the Orquesta de Extremadura and will make his debut with Haydn at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He will perform Gulda’s Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, where he has been a regular guest in recent seasons.
Julian Steckel’s discography includes several acclaimed duo recordings with pianist Paul Rivinius, featuring works by Mendelssohn, French cello sonatas, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev; and, with Antje Weithaas, sonatas by Kodály. His recording of the cello concertos by Korngold, Bloch and Goldschmidt with the Rheinische Philharmonie under Daniel Raiskin received the ECHO Klassik award. He has also recorded the cello concertos of C. P. E. Bach with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra conducted by Susanne von Gutzeit.
He studied with Ulrich Voss, Gustav Rivinius, Boris Pergamenschikow, Heinrich Schiff and Antje Weithaas. “My very first teacher made lightness and simplicity the central principles of playing. Listen to yourself, plan what you do, and do it right the first time. I owe everything to that insight,” Julian Steckel explains. Today he passes on that approach to the next generation as Professor of Violoncello at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich.
Season 2025/26
This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorised by the artist management.
Programme I
J. Brahms: Sextets Op. 18 and Op. 36with Feng Ning, Philipp Bohnen, Diyang Mei, Barbara Buntrock and Peter-Philipp Staemmler
Programme II
Clarinet Trios and Chamber Music by A. Zemlinsky, A. Webern, N. Rota, A. Berg and J. Brahmswith Sharon Kam and Enrico Pace
Programme III
J.S. Bach: Six Cello Suites BWV 1007–1012
Duo 1: Europe
Z. Kodály: Adagio
L. v. Beethoven: Sonata in A Major, Op. 69
E. Grieg: Sonata, Op. 36
F. Chopin: Introduction and Polonaise Brillante, Op. 3with Aris Blettenberg
“…he offered a balanced, sincere, and unexaggerated interpretation in harmony with the conductor, sometimes playful, but more often lyrical, unpretentious, yet very intense in its expression of emotion.“
KlasikaPlus.cz, Petr Veber, 7/09/2024
“German cellist Julian Steckel was at his best … Unsurprisingly the score exploits to the full the virtuosic capacities of the instrument, demands which the soloist was clearly capable of meeting with ease and polish.“
New Zealand Arts Review, Peter Simpson, 15/02/2024
"If you ask about the currently most influential German cellists, you can't overlook Julian Steckel."
Orchestergraben, Stefan Pillhofer, 7/05/2020
"When he plays, the music takes center stage."
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Harald Eggebrecht, 22/02/2016
“Technical assurance and deep musical thought … beautifully shaped, exquisite tone.”
Bachtrack, Madelaine Jones, 7/11/2012
"Each variation had character and individuality … the finale performed with abundant panache and style.”
"Powerful, romantic, moving – and always perfectly in sync: Julian Steckel and Paul Rivinius explore the full range of Fauré, Saint-Saëns, and Franck's music. A passionate declaration of love for French chamber music."
Br-klassik, Antonia Bruns, 7/06/2014
"That Julian Steckel is rightly considered a rising star of the cello is proven by his new CD featuring French sonatas... Steckel masters the grand gesture, yet just as confidently, he is able to conjure delicate sound nuances."
Concerti, Heiner Milberg, 9/11/2011
"(...) he is someone who doesn't make the notes swirl, but make them dance, an exceptional cellist and musician, because he brings out things from the works that even the composers probably didn’t know were there."
Fono Forum, Ole Pflüger, 2011
Strauss: Don Quijote | Sapporo Symphony, Julian Steckel, Elias Grandi - Jul 2025
Bloch: Schelomo | Julian Steckel, Christophe Eschenbach (Probe) - Jan 2018
Schumann: Cello Konzert | Göteborgs Symfoniker, Julian Steckel, Christian Zacharias - Nov 2017
Dvorak: Cello Konzert | BR Symphonieorchester, Julian Steckel, Christoph Poppen - Sept 2010
Julian Steckel, Antje Weithaas, Paul RiviniusAvi-Music, 2019
Julian Steckel, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester,Susanne von GutzeitHänssler, DDD 2015
Julian Steckel, VioloncelloPaul Rivinius, KlavierAvi-Music, 2014
Julian Steckel, VioloncelloPaul Rivinius, KlavierOehms Classics, 2013
Julian Steckel, VioloncelloLena Neudauer, ViolineHänssler, DDD, 2012
Martha Argerich, Alissa Margulis, Julian Steckel, Sergio Tiempo, Alessandro Stella, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Dora Schwarzberg, Lucia HallWarner, 2011
Julian Steckel, VioloncelloPaul Rivinius, KlavierCAvi, 2011
Julian Steckel, Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, Daniel RaiskinCAvi, 2011
Julian Steckel, VioloncelloPaul Rivinius, KlavierAvi-Music, 2010
Mit Lars Vogt, Isabelle Faust, Christian Tetzlaff, Veronika Eberle, Hanna Weinmeister, Stefan Fehlandt, Julian Steckel, Gustav RiviniusAvi-Music, 2010