Johannes Moser

Hailed by Gramophone Magazine as “one of the finest among the astonishing gallery of young virtuoso cellists”, German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser has performed with the world’s leading orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the BBC Philharmonic at the Proms, the London Symphony, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Tokyo NHK Symphony, and the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras with conductors of the highest level including Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Jurowski, Franz Welser- Möst, Christian Thielemann, Pierre Boulez, Paavo Jarvi, Semyon Bychkov, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Gustavo Dudamel. 

His recordings include the concertos by Dvořák, Lalo, Elgar, Lutosławski, Dutilleux, and Tchaikovsky, which have gained him the prestigious Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Diapason d’Or and Gramophone commented “[Lutosławski and Dutilleux Cello Concertos]…Anyone coming afresh to these masterly works… should now investigate this new release ahead of all others…”. 

A dedicated chamber musician, Moser has performed with Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Jonathan Biss, James Ehnes, Vadim Gluzman, Leonidas Kavakos, Midori, Menahem Pressler, Andrej Korobeinikov, Gloria Campaner, and Yevgeny Sudbin. Moser is also a regular at festivals including the Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Gstaad, and Kissinger festivals, the Mehta Chamber Music Festival, and the Colorado, Seattle, and Brevard music festivals. 

Renowned for his efforts to expand the reach of the classical genre, as well as his passionate focus on new music, Moser has recently been heavily involved in commissioning works by Julia Wolfe, Ellen Reid, Thomas Agerfeld Olesen, Johannes Kalitzke, Jelena Firsowa, and Andrew Norman. In 2011 he premiered Magnetar for electric cello by Enrico Chapela with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and in the following season he continued this relationship with the orchestra performing Michel van der Aa’s cello concerto Up-close. Throughout his career, Moser has been committed to reaching out to all audiences, from kindergarten to college and beyond. He combines most of his concert engagements with masterclasses, school visits and preconcert lectures. Moser holds a professorship at the prestigious Cologne Hochschule fuer Musik und Tanz. 

Born into a musical family in 1979, Moser began studying the cello at the age of eight and became a student of Professor David Geringas in 1997. He was the top prize winner at the 2002 Tchaikovsky Competition and was awarded the Special Prize for his interpretation of the Rococo Variations. In 2014 he was awarded the prestigious Brahms prize. 

A voracious reader of everything from Kafka to Collins, and an avid outdoorsman, Moser is a keen hiker and mountain biker in what little spare time he has. 

Moser plays on an Andrea Guarneri Cello from 1694 from a private collection.