Andrei Ioniță

He began piano at five and cello at eight in Bucharest and studied in Jens Peter Maintz's class at Berlin's University of the Arts; in 2015 Andrei Ioniță took the Gold Medal of the Tchaikovsky Competition, having already won first prize at the Khachaturian Competition and prizes at the ARD and Feuermann competitions. A BBC New Generation Artist in 2016–18 and later artist-in-residence of the Symphoniker Hamburg, he has played with the Chicago Symphony, the Gewandhausorchester, the Münchner Philharmoniker and the BBC Philharmonic, and made his New York recital debut in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall; his first album, on Orchid Classics, set a Brett Dean premiere beside Bach and Kodály. He has played a cello by Filippo Fasser of Brescia. On 14 March 2025 he was the soloist of the Rousse Philharmonic at March Music Days, on a programme shared with Alexander Sitkovetsky. Ani-Marie Paladi taught him in Bucharest, the Khachaturian prize came in 2013, and the Hamburg residency fell in the 2019/20 season. Martha Argerich, Christian Tetzlaff and Steven Isserlis are among his chamber partners.