Performer Biographies

Rising star of the cello Jonathan Swensen is the recipient of the 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant and was recently awarded joint First Prize at the 2024 Naumburg International Cello Competition. Previously he has been featured as both Musical America’s ‘New Artist of the Month’ and ‘One to Watch’ in Gramophone Magazine. Jonathan first fell in love with the cello upon hearing the Elgar Concerto at the age of six, and ultimately made his concerto debut performing that very piece with Portugal’s Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música.

The release of Jonathan’s debut recording Fantasia, on Champs Hill Records, an album of works for solo cello, including Bent Sørensen’s Farewell Fantasia, composed for and dedicated to Jonathan and which he premiered in 2021. The album received rave reviews on its release, including from Gramophone, BBC Music, The Strad and Musical America which printed “Swensen proves to be not just a bold programmer, but a mature artist with a bold rounded sound and the emotional chops to back it up.”

Lauded for his “impeccable technique” (The Washington Post) and “elegant musicianship” (The New York Times), pianist Juho Pohjonen is in demand internationally as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber performer. An ardent exponent of Scandinavian music, Pohjonen’s growing discography offers a showcase of music by Finnish compatriots such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kaija Saariaho, and Jean Sibelius.

The “fast rising Finnish star” has garnered acclaim as a “delightfully unassuming but bewitching soloist” (The Guardian) in recent engagements with the Los Angeles, BBC, Taiwan and Deutsche Radio Philharmonics; Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras; the San Francisco, Atlanta, New Jersey, and Colorado Symphonies; National Arts Centre Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, and the Mostly Mozart Festival.