Championed by such maestros as Daniel Barenboim (“Remarkable, really remarkable, perfect playing!”) and Sir Simon Rattle (“I really loved his playing”), Benedict Kloeckner is a highly regarded representative of the new generation of cellists, a great voice for his instrument, which he performs worldwide.
Kloeckner has appeared as a soloist with renowned orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic, German Radio Philharmonic Orchestras, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the NDR and Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Kremerata Baltica, Slovak Radio Orchestra, Slovak National Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Korean Chamber Orchestra, Rheinische Philharmonie and the Philharmonic Orchestras of Russia, Poland and Buenos Aires, under the baton of conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Howard Griffiths, Ingo Metzmacher, Michael Sanderling, Daniel Raiskin, Karl Heinz Steffens, Christoph Poppen and Heinrich Schiff.
Benedict Kloeckner appears regularly in major venues such as Berliner Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall in New York, Symphony Hall in Chicago, Kennedy Center in Washington, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Tonhalle Zurich, Cadogan Hall and Barbican Centre in London, Athenäum Bucharest, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Wien and Seoul Arts Center.
A keen chamber musician, Benedict Kloeckner joins forces with leading artists such as Sir András Schiff, Anne Sophie Mutter, Emmanuel Ax, Anna Fedorova, Gidon Kremer, Antoine Tamestit, the Carducci and Kuss String Quartets, Fazil Say, Lisa Batiashvili, Yuri Bashmet, to name but a few. Since 2014, Benedict Kloeckner is the Founder and Artistic Director of the International Music Festival Koblenz presenting high level chamber music concerts with artists such as Vilde Frang, Tianwa Yang, Boris Giltburg and the Georgian and Munich Chamber orchestras. Benedict Kloeckner also collaborates with contemporary composers, including Eric Tanguy, Wolfgang Rihm, Eun-Hwa Cho and Howard Blake, who composed a cello sonata for him – in celebration of his 75th birthday, Howard Blake invited Kloeckner to record his entire repertoire for cello and piano, with him on the piano, for the Genuin label in cooperation with the SWR.
Kloeckner’s discography includes a highly acclaimed recording of Schumann’s Cello Concerto, which was nominated for the German Record Critics Prize, and collaborations with Gidon Kremer, conductors Heinrich Schiff and Michael Sanderling, pianists José Gallardo and Anna Fedorova. Future recordings include a CD with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a recital CD with Danae Dörken.
Benedict Kloeckner studied with Martin Ostertag, and as a young soloist of the Kronberg Academy Masters with Frans Helmerson and Gary Hoffman. He plays an Italian cello by Francesco Rugeri (Cremona 1680) kindly on loan to him by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.
