Born in Bregenz, Austria, to a Persian family of musicians, Kian Soltani began his cello studies at the age of 12 with Ivan Monighetti at the Music Academy in Basel and completed his education at the Kronberg Academy with Frans Helmerson. A recipient of a scholarship from the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation, he won first prize at the 2013 International Paulo Cello Competition and has been in demand internationally as a soloist and chamber musician ever since. He has appeared with Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra, the Berlin Staatskapelle, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Cologne’s WDR Symphony, and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia as well as at the festivals in Salzburg, Verbier, Lucerne, Rheingau, and at the BBC Proms. This season, he performs with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and makes debuts with the Orchestra National de France and the Sydney Symphony, among others. Closely associated with the Pierre Boulez Saal since its inception, his performances here have included Beethoven’s complete piano trios with Michael and Daniel Barenboim, which were released as a live recording, His discography also includes works for cello and piano by Schubert, Schumann, and Persian composer Reza Vali, piano trios by Dvořák and Tchaikovsky with Lahav Shani and Renaud Capuçon, as well as Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, together with Maestro Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin. He won a 2022 Opus Klassik award for his solo album Cello Unlimited. Kian Soltani plays the “London, ex Boccherini” Stradivari, kindly loaned to him by a generous sponsor through the Beares International Violin Society.

May 2026

Born into a German-Egyptian family, Nabil Shehata began his musical education as a double bass player, studying with Michinori Bunya at the University of Music in Würzburg and with Esko Laine at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler School of Music. He was awarded first prizes at several international competitions, including the ARD Music Competition in Munich, where he also received the audience award. After performing as principal double bass with the Staatskapelle Berlin from 2003 to 2004, he held the same position with the Berliner Philharmoniker until 2008. He served as principal double bass with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra for more than ten years. Encouraged by Daniel Barenboim, among others, he began his career as a conductor in 2006, studying with Rolf Reuter, Lawrence Foster, and Christian Thielemann, and has since led major orchestras, including the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie Chemnitz, the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg. He led the Munich Chamber Opera as music director for several years, holding the same position with the Philharmonie Südwestfalen from 2019 to 2024. Nabil Shehata has been closely associated with the Barenboim-Said Akademie as professor of double bass since 2019 and was named artistic director of its Orchestra in 2024. He also conducted the Filasteen Young Musicians Orchestra at the Pierre Boulez Saal in 2023.

May 2026

The Orchestra of the Barenboim-Said Akademie was founded in 2023 by Daniel Barenboim, who led its public debut in April of that year with Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante and Schubert’s Symphony No. 3 at the Pierre Boulez Saal. The ensemble has since been heard there regularly performing works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Wagner, Schoenberg, and Prokofiev, among others. The orchestra carries forward the vision of Maestro Barenboim and Edward W. Said, who believed that music and thought belong together and that both flourish through artistic excellence, critical listening, humanism, and intellectual curiosity. In 2024, Nabil Shehata was named the ensemble’s artistic director. An acclaimed conductor and former principal double bassist of the Berliner Philharmoniker, he has been closely associated with the Akademie as a professor since 2019. In May 2026, the orchestra performed its first concert outside the Akademie at the International Chamber Music Festival in Verden. This November, it will be heard at Leipzig’s Gewandhaus as part of the Mendelssohn Festival.

May 2026