In partnership with the Naumburg Foundation, SFCM presents the winner of the Naumburg Foundation's 2024 Cello Competition, Jonathan Swensen.
This series is generously underwritten by Mr. Sin-Tung Chiu in memory of his parents Bella and P.P. Chiu and celebrates the family's long time friendship with Robert and Lucy Mann who led the Naumburg Foundation for more than 50 years. Robert Mann was Sin-Tung's mentor and this concert honors their close friendship.
Bent Sørensen: Farewell Fantasia for Solo Cello
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello Suite No. 4 in E-flat Major
I. Prélude
II. Allemande
III. Courante
IV. Sarabande
V. Bourrée I
VI. Bourrée II
VII. Gigue
Henri Dutilleux: Trois Strophes sur le nom de Sacher
-Intermission-
Zoltán Kodály: Sonata for Solo Cello in B Minor, Op. 8
The Chiu Family met Robert Mann and the Juilliard String Quartet in 1961 in Hong Kong during their maiden tour to the Far East. Robert and P. P. and Bella bonded immediately and this loving friendship lasted throughout their lives.
The Naumburg Foundation teamed up with the Chiu Family and Ruth Felt of San Francisco Performances to sponsor the first annual winner’s Debut recital in 1998 in San Francisco. It is gratifying to be part of the new collaboration between the Naumburg Foundation and SFCM.
On a personal note, Sin-Tung Chiu is forever grateful to Robert Mann for having been his mentor, coach and friend at The Juilliard School.
Featured as both Musical America’s “New Artist of the Month” and one of Gramophone Magazine’s “Ones to Watch,” rising star cellist Jonathan Swensen was awarded First Prize at the 2024 Naumburg International Cello Competition in New York. He is also a recipient of a 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant and First Prize winner of the 2019 Windsor International String Competition and the 2018 Khachaturian International Cello Competition.
Jonathan first fell in love with the cello after hearing the Elgar Concerto at the age of six and later made his concerto debut performing that very work with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música. Since then, he has appeared with leading orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Aarhus, Aalborg, and Odense, among others. The 2025–26 season brings returns to the Copenhagen Philharmonic and debuts with the Danish Chamber Orchestra, Danish Sinfonietta, and Puerto Rico Symphony.
Dedicated to curating programs that take listeners on a journey through the full expressive and technical range of his instrument, Jonathan seeks to expand the possibilities of the recital performance can communicate while challenging the usual limits of a soloist’s mental and physical endurance. The season also includes his recital debuts at London’s Wigmore Hall and Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, following acclaimed debuts at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater and New York’s Merkin Concert Hall. He has also performed at Boston’s Jordan Hall, the Morgan Library & Museum, and the Krannert Center’s Foellinger Great Hall, and has appeared at festivals including Tivoli Festival, Copenhagen Summer Festival, Chamberfest Cleveland, Krzyżowa-Music, Vancouver Recital Society, San Francisco Performances, Music@Menlo, La Jolla Summerfest, and Newport Classical. In 2024, he joined the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
September 2022 saw 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, and The Strad which printed “An exciting young talent emerges. I would gladly buy a ticket to see Swensen on the strength of this appealing calling card.”
In his native Denmark, Jonathan has been recognized with the Musikanmelderringens Artist Prize (2020), the Jacob Gades Scholarship (2019), the Léonie Sonning Talent Prize (2017), and First Prize at the Danish String Competition (2016). A graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Music, he continued his studies with Torleif Thedéen at the Norwegian Academy of Music and with Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory, where he received his Artist Diploma in 2023. In 2024, he became an artist-in-residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium working with Gary Hoffman.
