Jonathan Swensen, cello
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.
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. In addition to his many solo appearances, Jonathan is a frequent performer of chamber music both in Europe and the US. In 2024, he joined the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, while he has appeared at 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 among others.
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.
He won the joint 1st prize in the Naumburg International Cello Competition 2024.
Since September 2024, Jonathan is Artist in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, in the class of Gary Hoffman and Jeroen Reuling.