With his striking musicality, instinctive stylistic certainty and musical maturity, the young cellist Maximilian Hornung, whose career began when he won the German Music Council’s Competition in 2005, is taking the international music scene by storm. He received an ECHO Klassik prize as best newcomer of the year for his first Sony CD in 2011, followed by an ECHO Klassik prize for the best cello concerto recording of the year for his recording of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Bamberg Symphony under Sebastian Tewinkel in October 2012.

Maximilian Hornung regularly performs as a soloist with such renowned orchestras as the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Czech Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Bamberg Symphony under conductors such as Daniel Harding, Jiří Bělohlávek, Heinrich Schiff, Yakov Kreizberg, Krzysztof Urbánski, Robin Ticciati, Bernard Haitink and Manfred Honeck. His chamber music partners include Anne-Sophie Mutter, Hélène Grimaud, Christian Tetzlaff, Lisa Batiashvili, Francois Leleux, Yefim Bronfman, Jörg Widmann and Tabea Zimmermann. He has appeared at numerous festivals, including the Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rheingau, Lucerne, Verbier, Ravinia and Hong Kong festivals, and concerts have taken him to the philharmonic halls in Berlin, Cologne and Essen, as well as to the Konzerthaus Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and London’s Wigmore Hall.

In August 2014, he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen and produced a CD of Richard Strauss’ most important works for cello, as well as a CD of the cello concertos of Joseph Haydn and Vaja Azarashvili with the Kammerakademie Potsdam under Antonello Manacorda on Sony Classical in the same year. Highlights of the 2014/15 season included a concert with the Bamberg Symphony under Jonathan Nott in Shanghai, as well as his debuts with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg under Nikolaj Znaider (with Dvořák’s Cello Concerto) and with the Camerata Salzburg under Yuri Bashmet (with Tchaikovsky’s Rokoko Variations).

In the 2015/16 season he will play Brahms‘ Double Concerto with Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons, as well as with Lisa Batiashvili and the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Yannick Nézét-Séguin amongst others. Further performances include the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Tonkünstler Orchestra under Hugh Wolff, Herbert Cello Concerto No. 2 with the Bern Symphony Orchestra under Mario Venzago, Schumann Cello Concerto with the State Orchestra of Lower Saxony under Dirk Kaftan, Elgar Cello Concerto and Tchaikovsky Rokoko Variations with the Orchestra of the National Theatre Mannheim under Dan Ettinger, Saint-Saens Cello Concerto No. 1 with Het Gelders Orkest under Antonello Manacorda, as well as Tchaikovsky’s Rokoko Variations with The Florida Orchestra under Michael Francis.

In the realm of chamber music, he will play in the Vancouver Recital Society’s season-opening concert, and perform with the Arcanto Quartet in Munich and at the Schwetzingen Festival, as well as with Anne-Sophie Mutter at the Edinburgh Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Grafenegg Festival and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Maximilian Hornung began taking cello lessons at the age of eight. The teachers with whom he has studied most intensely are Eldar Issakadze, Thomas Grossenbacher and David Geringas. As cellist of the Tecchler Trio, in which he played until 2011, he won the First Prize of the ARD Music Competition in 2007. Since 2010, Maximilian Hornung has held an exclusive recording contract with Sony Classical. He has also recorded for Genuin, Bridge Records, CC ClassicClips and CPO. Maximilian Hornung is supported and sponsored by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Circle of Friends Foundation and Borletti-Buitoni Trust London.