Live Elgar’s Cello Concerto Fri 5 – Sat 6 June

Patrick Hahn is Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, General Music Director of Sinfonieorchester und Oper Wuppertal and Principal Guest Conductor of Münchner Rundfunkorchester of the Bayerischer Rundfunk. He is one of the most sought after and exciting conductors of his generation.

In his fourth season in Wuppertal, Patrick Hahn’s symphonic and choral programmes include Mahler’s Symphony No.5, Bruckner’s Symphony No.5, and Messiaen’s Turangalila, to name but few. The operas there this season include R. Strauss’ Salome and Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

As a guest conductor in the 2024/25 season, Patrick Hahn makes his first appearances at hr-Sinfonieorchester, Brussels Philharmonic with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Anastasia Kobekina, RAI with Truls Mork, Semperoper Dresden conducting R. Strauss’ Intermezzo and Staatsoper Hamburg with Wagner’s Parsifal. Return visits include Deutsche Symphony Orchester Berlin with Gabriela Montero, Wiener Symphoniker and Tonhalle Orhestra Zürich. He will also take part in the Johann Strauss 2025 celebration in Vienna, celebrating the 200^th anniversary by conducting a concert performance of Der Karneval in Rom.

Previous seasons’ highlights include his successful debut at Zürich Opera House with Barrie Kosky’s new production of Die lustige Witwe and New National Theatre Tokyo with Der Fledermaus as well as debuts with Bamberg Symphony, alongside Sol Gabetta and SWR with Istvan Vardai. Patrick Hahn enjoys a regular relationship with Klangforum Wien and Wiener Symphoniker, most recently conducting Schoenberg’s Ertwartung with Dorothea Röschmann at the Vienna Musikverein. Patrick has acted as Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Advisor for Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic between 2021/23.

Patrick Hahn’s has conducted many cornerstones of the repertoire in his time in Wuppertal, such as R. Strauss’ Eine Alpensinfonie, Bruckner’s Symphony No.4 and No.9, Mahler’s Symphony No.1 and No.2, Beethoven’s Symphony No.9, Wagner/Maazel’s Ring without Words, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Tannhauser, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, as well as rarely performed gems such as Charles Ives’ Symphony No.2, von Einem’s Capriccio, Op.2.

Patrick Hahn and Münchner Rundfunkorchester’s exploration and recordings of rarely performed repertoire such as Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis and Alexander Zemlinsky’s Eine Florentinische Tragoedie have received critical acclaim. Other recordings include Alpha label’s Britten and Bruch’s Violin Concertos with Kerson Leong and Philharmonia Orchestra and Beethoven’s Piano Concertos No.1 and 2 with Olivier Cave and Kammerakademie Potsdam.

Aside from his work in classical music, Patrick Hahn accompanies himself on the piano singing cabaret-songs by the Austrian satirist and composer Georg Kreisler. As a jazz pianist, he received awards from the Chicago Jazz Festival and the ‘Outstanding Soloist Award’ from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse as the best jazz pianist of the 37th Annual Jazz Festival.

Hailed by The Times as a ‘remarkable cellist’ and described by Gramophone as ‘sheer perfection’, Kian Soltani’s playing is characterised by a depth of expression, sense of individuality and technical mastery, alongside a charismatic stage presence and ability to create an immediate emotional connection with his audience. He is now invited by the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and recital promoters, propelling him from rising star to one of the most talked about cellists performing today.

In the 24/25 season, Kian Soltani made several returns including with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Lahav Shani, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Cello Biënnale in Amsterdam and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande; he will make his debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and will be artist-in-residence at Fränkischer Sommer Festival. As a recitalist, he joined forces once again with Benjamin Grosvenor, Hyeyoon Park, and Timothy Ridout for a quartet tour and will also embark on several trio concerts with Renaud Capuçon and Mao Fujita across the season. In celebration of the Vienna Symphony’s 125th anniversary, he toured Austria with the orchestra, performing the world premiere of Marcus Nigsch’s concerto written for him. He will also tour with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta in Asia as well as with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin across Europe.

His recent orchestral highlights include his residency in 23/24 with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich and concerts with the NDR Elbphilharmonieorchester, Berlin Staatskapelle, WDR Cologne, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. As a recitalist he continues to appear in prestigious halls and series including at the Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin; Wigmore Hall, London; Musikverein and Konzerthaus Vienna and he appears regularly at festivals such as Verbier, Rheingau, Dvorak Prague Festival, Bregenzer Festspiele, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Grafenegg, Kissinger Sommer and many others.

In 2017, Soltani signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon and his first disc Home, comprising works for cello and piano by Schubert, Schumann and Reza Vali, was released to international acclaim in 2018, with Gramophone describing the recording as ‘sublime’. Soltani has since recorded discs including the Dvorak and Tchaikovsky Piano Trios with Lahav Shani and Renaud Capucon, recorded live at Aix Easter Festival in 2018 released by Warner Classics and Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim in August 2020.

He recently won Innovative Listening Experience Award at the coveted Opus Klassic Awards 2022, Germany’s most prestigious classical music prize which honours outstanding artists and recordings, for his Cello Unlimited album released back in October 2021. He has worked on this latest disc with Deutsche Grammophon during the entirety of 2020, and it is a celebration of the cello and film music. Of the disc, Soltani wrote, ‘Everything you will hear on this album is made only and exclusively with my cello and played only by me. The possibilities of this instrument are unlimited and infinite, and this album is a celebration of the instrument and of epic film music as well’.

Soltani attracted worldwide attention in April 2013 as winner of the International Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki. In February 2017 Soltani won Germany’s celebrated Leonard Bernstein Award and in December 2017, he was awarded the prestigious Credit Suisse Young Artist Award.

Born in Bregenz, Austria, in 1992 to a family of Persian musicians, Soltani began playing the cello at age four and was only twelve when he joined Ivan Monighetti’s class at the Basel Music Academy. He was chosen as an Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation scholarship holder in 2014 and completed his further studies as a member of the Young Soloist Programme at Germany’s Kronberg Academy. He received additional important musical training at the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein. As of October 2023, he holds position as a professor of cello at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria.

Kian Soltani plays ‘The London, ex Boccherini’ Antonio Stradivari cello, kindly loaned to him by a generous sponsor through the Beares International Violin Society.

See Kian Soltani perform Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the RSNO on 5 & 6 June 2026.