Simon Nikolai Tetzlaff

Simon Tetzlaff learned his craft from some of the most distinguished cellists and teachers, and is now offering his passion for music making to a variety of audiences worldwide. In 2024, he was awarded the Janos Starker Foundation Prize.

In recent years, Simon Tetzlaff performed as a soloist with the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn and the Hamburg Camerata, giving his debut in the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie in 2020. Performances of his were featured on German Radio, Finnish and Belgian National Television and the Violin Channel.

A dedicated chamber musician, Simon Tetzlaff has performed at Spannungen in Heimbach, the Elba International Music Festival, the Rheingau Musik Festival, Music in the Mansion in Los Angeles, Syrinx in Toronto and is a founding member of the Landshut Kammermusikfestival. He has collaborated with distinguished artists such as Rainer Schmidt, Guy Braunstein, Alina Ibragimova, Benjamin Beilman, and Christian Tetzlaff. His debut album, featuring works by Kodály, Ysaÿe, and Sibelius, will be released in 2025 on Hänssler Classic.

Born in 1997 in Frankfurt, Germany, he received piano, music theory and cello lessons in his early childhood. As a pre-college student at the music academy in Frankfurt, Simon attracted attention in various youth competitions and participated in masterclasses at the Kronberg Academy.

He was a student of Prof. Julian Steckel at the academy in Munich, Prof. Clemens Hagen at the Mozarteum Salzburg and recently completed the Artist Diploma Program at USC Thornton in Los Angeles, studying with Prof. Ralph Kirshbaum. He collected other musical impulses with world-renowned cellists, such as Alban Gerhardt, Gustav Rivinius and Torleif Thedéen.

In the course of his studies he held fellowships from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, Villa Musica Rheinland-Pfalz and PE-Förderungen Mannheim.

He plays an instrument by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, by courtesy of the Music Instrument Fonds of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben. He is currently studying with Prof. Clemens Hagen at the Mozarteum Salzburg.