Claudio Bohórquez (Violoncello, Deutschland)

Der peruanisch-uruguayisch-stämmige Cellist Claudio Bohórquez wurde 1976 in Deutschland geboren. Im Alter von acht Jahren erhielt er ersten Cellounterricht und begann bereits fünf Jahre später ein Instrumentalstudium an der Musikhochschule Lübeck bei David Geringas. An der Hochschule für Musik in Aachen setzte er sein Studium bei Hans-Christian Schweiker fort. Später studierte er bei Boris Pergamenschikow an der Hochschule für Musik Köln und an der Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin. Schon früh feierte Claudio Bohórquez Erfolge auf internationalen Wettbewerben wie etwa dem Tschaikowsky-Jugendwettbewerb in Moskau oder dem Rostropowitsch-Wettbewerb in Paris. Im Jahr 2000 gewann er den 1. Preis bei der Internationalen Pablo Casals Cello Competition der Kronberg Academy im Taunus. Einen Ersten Preis gewann er außerdem beim Internationalen Musikwettbewerb in Genf. Zwischen 2003 und 2006 unterrichtete Bohórquez selbst als Gastprofessor an der Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin.

Seit seinen grossen Wettbewerbserfolgen konzertiert Claudio Bohórquez in der ganzen Welt und arbeitete dabei mit vielen der namhaftesten Dirigenten und Orchestern zusammen. So trat er beispielsweise mit Klangkörpern wie dem Deutschen Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, dem Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, dem Boston Symphony Orchestra, dem Chicago Symphony Orchestra, dem Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, der Sächsischen Staatskapelle Dresden, dem Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt, dem Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, dem MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, den Münchner Symphonikern, dem NDR Sinfonieorchester, dem Orchestre de Paris, dem Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich und dem Philadelphia Orchestra auf. Er arbeitete dabei mit Dirigenten wie Daniel Barenboim, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Thomas Dausgaard, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Neville Marriner, Krzysztof Penderecki, Christoph Poppen, Leonard Slatkin und David Zinman.

Neben seiner Tätigkeit als Konzert- und Studiomusiker beteiligte sich Claudio Bohórquez an verschiedenen Medienkunstprojekten. Dazu gehören zum Beispiel seine Einspielung für den Soundtrack des Films "Ten Minutes Older – The Cello" aus dem Jahr 2002 sowie das Projekt "Raum für Pablo Casals", eine Hommage, an der er gemeinsam mit dem Maler Klaus-Peter Kirchner arbeitete.


Claudio Bohórquez has been hailed as one of the most exciting and fascinating musicians of his generation by conductors, audiences, concert presenters and critics alike. He has performed as a soloist with an impressive range of internationally renowned orchestras and conductors and sung with famous chamber music partners. Claudio Bohórquez also works on a variety of special projects in the field of the visual and performing arts.
As a student of Boris Pergamenschikow, Claudio Bohórquez achieved success at an early age at international competitions such as the Tschaikowsky Youth Competition in Moscow and the Rostropovich Cello Competition in Paris. This culminated in 2000 with three awards at the first International Pablo Casals Competition held under the auspices of the Kronberg Academy: Marta Casals Istomin presented Claudio Bohórquez with first prize, a special award for the best chamber music, and also the use of Casals’ Gofriller cello for a period of two years. He also won first prize at the International Music Competition in Geneva, an achievement that marked the start of his career as a soloist. Meanwhile he is a teacher himself: he was a guest professor at the 'Hanns Eisler' Academy of Music in Berlin from 2003 to 2006, and resumed this position in October 2009.
Claudio Bohórquez has performed with the Sächsischen Staatskapelle Dresden (Dresden State Orchestra of Saxony), the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, almost all of the German radio orchestras, the Württembergischen Kammerorchester Heilbronn (Württemberg Chamber Orchestra of Heilbronn), the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Collegium Musicum Basel, the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre de Toulouse, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. In Japan he has appeared with both the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. In the United States he has recently performed concerts with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also been invited to perform with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington in 2010.
Renowned conductors with whom Claudio Bohórquez has worked include Daniel Barenboim, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Jonathan Darlington, Thomas Dausgaard, Christoph Eschenbach, Hans Graf, Ruben Gazarian, Manfred Honeck, Yakov Kreizberg, Sir Neville Marriner, Krzysztof Penderecki, Leonard Slatkin, Eiji Oue, Tugan Sokhiev, Lothar Zagrosek, and David Zinman.
Highlights of the 2010/2011 season will include concerts with the Bern Symphony Orchestra under Michael Sanderling and the Berlin Konzerthausorchester's New Year's Eve concert conducted by Lothar Zagrosek. Claudio Bohórquez will also be performing with the Konzerthausorchester at the Rheingau Music Festival. He and pianist Katia Skanavi will play at recitals in Bern and other European towns. This season he is also involved in chamber music projects with Jörg Widmann and Denes Varjo in Baden-Baden and Elena Bashkirova in Jerusalem.
Claudio Bohórquez has been invited to numerous festivals as a guest performer, including the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, the City of London Festival, the Penderecki Festival in Warsaw and the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival. Appearances in the United States have included performances at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen festivals and the Hollywood Bowl. He also took part in the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival in Austria and Gidon Kremer's "Les Musiques" festival in Basel.
In 2007 the famous Kronberg Academy dedicated the second CD of their series "The Vision" exclusively to Claudio Bohórquez (aulos MusiKado). In January 2006 the Berlin Classics label released his first recital CD. This was a successor to his debut CD recorded under the same label in performance with the Dresden Philharmonic conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. In 2005 EMI Classics released his recording of Tschaikowsky's Piano Trio in A Minor, the same year in which he recorded a benefit CD with the title "Doha" for the Stupa of the Shambhala Mountain Center in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado as part of an improvisation and meditation project. His first Bach recording was released under the Plushmusic label. Besides CD recordings, radio broadcasts and television appearances, Claudio Bohórquez performed on Paul Englishby's soundtrack of the film "Ten Minutes Older - The Cello" which appeared in cinemas across the world in 2002.
Claudio Bohórquez has also worked with artist Klaus-Peter Kirchner on "Room for Pablo Casals", a work dedicated to the great cellist combining words, sounds and images.
Claudio Bohórquez plays a G. B. Rogeri violoncello presented to him by the Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg. Of Peruvian and Uruguayan descent, he was born and grew up in Germany. He currently lives in Berlin.