Maximilian Hornung - Biography

Maximilian Hornung received support from BBT between 2012 and 2013.  For an up-to-date biography visit en.karstenwitt.com

With his striking musicality, instinctive stylistic certainty and musical maturity, the cellist Maximilian Hornung is taking the international music scene by storm. Today, he regularly performs as a soloist with such renowned orchestras as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yannick Nézét-Séguin and Manfred Honeck. His chamber music partners include Hélène Grimaud, Christian Tetzlaff, Lisa Batiashvili, Yefim Bronfman, Lars Vogt, Jörg Widmann and Tabea Zimmermann. He has been invited to perform at festivals including Salzburg, Rheingau, Lucerne, Verbier and Ravinia.

His wide-ranging discography is impressive and includes solo concertos as well as recordings with prominent chamber musicians. He received the ECHO Klassik Prize for his first album (Sony 2011) as well as for his recording of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Bamberg Symphony (Sony 2012). Further recordings have included Richard Strauss’ major cello works with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink (Sony 2014) and Joseph Haydn’s cello concertos with the Kammerakademie Potsdam under Antonello Manacorda (Sony 2015). In 2017, Deutsche Grammophon released a recording of Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Daniil Trifonov amongst others.

Maximilian Hornung, born 1986 in Augsburg, began taking cello lessons at the age of eight. The teachers with whom he has studied most intensely are Eldar Issakadze, Thomas Grossenbacher and David Geringas. Maximilian Hornung has been supported and sponsored by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Circle of Friends Foundation and Borletti-Buitoni Trust London.

Updated October 2018

The BBTrust is just wonderful! The support they give you is absolutely unique, essential and outstanding, especially today when it is so much more important to get the support which really fits you and makes your ideas come true. I’m very honoured to be part of this great family and deeply thankful to work with them on what I love: making music!

Photographs by Marco Borggreve