Bryan Cheng

After recently winning several prestigious international competition prizes, including the Queen Elisabeth Competition, the Geneva Competition, and the Paulo Cello Competition, Canadian-born and Berlin-based cellist Bryan Cheng has established himself as one of the most compelling young artists on the classical music scene. 

During the 2024/25 season, Bryan Cheng will make his debut with the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt performing Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1 under the baton of Erina Yashima. He will also perform with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, playing Elgar’s Cello Concerto under the direction of Simone Menezes, the Prague Philharmonia performing Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 under Oscar Jockel, the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra performing Mason Bates’ Cello Concerto under Robert Moody, the Orchestre Métropolitain performing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations under Louis Langrée, the Bochumer Symphoniker with Nil Venditti, the Orquesta Reino de Aragón under Ricardo Casero, the Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Ankara, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, and the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. 

He has recently performed with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin at the Berliner Philharmonie, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brussels Philharmonic, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestra of India, working with renowned conductors such as Stéphane Denève, Martyn Brabbins, Susanna Mälkki, Alpesh Chauhan, Matthias Pintscher, Dalia Stasevska, Daniel Raiskin, Christian Arming, Yan-Pascal Tortelier, Giordano Bellincampi, Jonathan Darlington, Joshua Weilerstein, and Laurence Equilbey. 

Appointed artist-in-residence with the “Banatul” Philharmonic Orchestra of Timisoara (Romania) as part of the 2023/24 European Capital of Culture season, Bryan will continue his residency during the 2024/25 season, presenting several symphonic and chamber music concerts. 

Bryan Cheng made his sold-out recital debut at Carnegie Hall at the age of 14, as well as at the Elbphilharmonie at the age of 20 with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. In 2022, he became the first cellist to receive the highly coveted Yves Paternot Prize, awarded to the most promising and accomplished musician of the Verbier Festival Academy. In 2023, he was the recipient of the Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, the highest national distinction for young musicians. 

As a member of the Cheng2 Duo, CelloFellos, and as a chamber musician, Bryan performs worldwide. He has had the privilege of working with partners such as Gidon Kremer, Lars Vogt, Christian Tetzlaff, Sir András Schiff, Angela Hewitt, Till Fellner, Viviane Hagner, and Antje Weithaas. 

In recital, he has performed at notable venues such as the Verbier Festival, Wigmore Hall, Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Heidelberger Frühling, Chamberfest Cleveland, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Banff International String Quartet Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, National Forum of Music Wroclaw, Vancouver Recital Society, Ottawa Chamberfest, and the Bourgie Hall in Montreal. 

Bryan has released a critically acclaimed trilogy of albums on the German classical label audite: Russian Legends (2019), Cello del fuego (2018), and French Cello (2016). His most recent recital album, Portrait (2023), released on Centrediscs, featuring commissioned works and personal arrangements by composers of diverse Asian origins, was nominated for two JUNO Awards. 

Bryan Cheng is a recipient of the Deutschlandstipendium and has received generous multi-year scholarships from the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Universität der Künste in Berlin under the tutelage of Jens Peter Maintz and is currently enrolled in the Professional Studies Program at the Kronberg Academy in Germany, studying with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt.