Jonathan Swensen

Jonathan Swensen – cellist

  •  Featured as both Musical America’s ‘New Artist of the Month’ and ‘One to Watch’ in Gramophone Magazine, rising star of the cello Jonathan Swensen is the recipient of the 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant, First Prize Winner at the 2019 Windsor International String Competition, the 2018 Khachaturian International Cello Competition and the 2018 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. In his native Denmark he was a recipient of the Musikanmelderringens Artist Prize in 2020, the Jacob Gades Scholarship in 2019, the Léonie Sonning Talent Prize in 2017 and the first prize winner at the Danish String Competition in 2016.

    • Jonathan first fell in love with the cello upon hearing the Elgar Concerto at the age of six, and ultimately made his concerto debut performing that very piece with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música. Since then, he has performed with orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Aarhus, Aalborg and Odense Symphony Orchestras, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and the Slovak State Philharmonic Košice. The 2024-25 season sees him returning to the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, as well as his debut with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine.

    click for more

    In recital, Jonathan recently gave acclaimed recital debuts at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater and New York’s Merkin Concert Hall, with additional performances in Boston’s Jordan Hall, the Morgan Library and Museum, and the Krannert Center’s Foellinger Great Hall. Other recent appearances include the Tivoli Festival, Copenhagen Summer Festival, Chamberfest Cleveland, Krzyżowa-Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Vancouver Recital Society, San Francisco Performances, and the Usedomer Musikfestival. In 2024, he joined the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; appearances with CMSLC in 2024-25 include several performances at Alice Tully Hall and the Rose Studio.

    September 2022 saw the release of Jonathan’s debut recording ‘Fantasia’, on Champs Hill Records, an album of works for solo cello, including Bent Sørensen’s ‘Farewell Fantasia’, composed for and dedicated to Jonathan and which he premiered in 2021, The album received rave reviews on its release, including from Gramophone, BBC Music, and The Strad which printed “An exciting young talent emerges. I would gladly buy a ticket to see Swensen on the strength of this appealing calling card.”

    A graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Jonathan continued his studies with Torleif Thedéen at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, and with Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory, where he received his Artist Diploma in May 2023. From September 2024 he will be an artist-in-residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium.

    Contact:
    Nicolas Papageorgiou (Director)
    Aude-Marie Auphan (Director)
    For US / Canada enquiries please contact Monica Felkel at Monica Felkel Creative Partners


    Go to top

    Videos

    Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No.2
    NEC Philharmonia / Hugh Wolff – Feb 2023
    Khachaturian: Concerto Rhapsody
    Armenian State Symphony Orchestra / June-Sung Park – June 2021
    Chopin: Cello Sonata
    with Soyeon Kate Lee (piano) – October 2022
    Schumann: Five Pieces
    with Marianna Shirinyan (piano) – December 2020
    Ravel: Kaddisch
    with Marianna Shirinyan (piano) – December 2020
    Franck: Piano Trio
    with Stephen Waarts (violin), Juho Pohjonen (piano) – June 2022


    Go to top

    Repertoire

    Works with Orchestra
      • JS Bach / Casadesus:

    Cello Concerto in C minor, Op.102

      • Brahms:

    Double Concerto in A minor, Op.102

      • Dvorak:

    Concerto in B minor op.104

      • Elgar:

    Concerto in E minor, op.85

      • Haydn:

    Concerto No.1 in C major, Hob. VIIb/1

      • Khachaturian:

    Concerto-Rhapsody

      • Lalo:

    Cello Concerto in D minor

      • Saint-Saëns:

    Concerto No.1 in A minor, op.33

      • Schumann:

    Concerto in A minor, op.129

      • Shostakovich:

    Concerto No.1 in E-flat major, op.107
    Concerto No. 2, op.126

      • Sollima:

    ‘Violoncelles Vibrez’

      • Tchaikovsky:

    Variations on a Rococo Theme, op.33


    Go to top

    Gallery

    Photo Gallery
    Go to top

    Links