Cellist Kian Soltani has signed to Deutsche Grammophon. The 25-year-old will release his DG debut, titled Home, in January 2018.
The announcement was made as Soltani received the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival’s Leonard Bernstein Award. Austrian-Persian Soltani has also won the International Paulo Cello Competition (2013), the Karl Davidoff International Cello Competition and the the International Antonio Janigro Competition (2012).
Home features Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata, Reza Vali’s Seven Persian Folk Songs as well as other compositions by Robert Schumann. Soltani is accompanied on the recording by Austrian pianist Aaron Pilsan.
“I grew up listening to Deutsche Grammophon recordings,” said the cellist. “They were an important part of my musical upbringing, which is why I so appreciate the company’s great history and its tremendous support for young musicians. I was deeply moved and honoured to be invited to record for DG. I look forward to realising our exciting plans to explore a wide variety of music in the future.”
Soltani has one other album to his name; titled Metamorphoses, it was released in 2012 on the LCMS label and features compositions by Sofia Gubaidulina and Franghiz Ali-Zadeh.