Past & Present Scholar Profiles

Holgen Gjoni

B.M., National University of Music Bucharest, G.D., Boston Conservatory, M.M., Juilliard School. Studies with Bonnie Hampton, Andrew Mark, Marin Cazacu. Recordings on Romanian National Radio and TV, Albanian Radio and Television.

Albanian cellist Holgen Gjoni has been highly praised by critics and audiences alike for his solo and chamber music performances throughout America, Asia and Europe. Cultura e Spettacoli of Bari, Italy praised him for his “technique, beauty of sound and emotional projection”, while the prestigious Actualitatea Muzicala of Bucharest, Romania hailed him for his “seriousness and profoundness of an authentic concert soloist”, “turmoiled musical sensibility, marked by an ineffable luminosity of expression”, calling him an “excellent cellist” and an “elite musician”.

Holgen Gjoni is the recipient of The Virtu Foundation Instrumental Scholarship Award and a top prize winner at the Mihail Jora International Cell Competition, Jeunnesse Musicales International Competition, Concerto Competition of the National University of Music Bucharest, in addition to receiving Boston Symphony’s Karl Zeise Memorial Cello Award, Boston Conservatory Presidential Award and APERTO Foundation Award.

Since his debut at age twelve with Korca String Orchestra, he has soloed with the National Romanian Radio Orchestra, Philharmonia and Symphony Orchestras of Bucharest, Concerto and Academica Orchestras of the National University of Music Bucharest. As a member of the Munich-based Academy of the Nations, he was featured as an Ambassador of Peace during the war in Kosovo, giving a solo appearance for a papal audience in Rome.

Holgen’s versatile career includes numerous concertos, recitals, chamber music and orchestra concerts across the world, appearing on venues such as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Kennedy Center, Strathmore Hall, Jordan Hall, Seiji Ozawa Hall, “Tchaikovsky” Hall of the Moscow State Conservatory, Berlin Opera House, Tokyo City Opera, Shanghai Center Theatre, Beijing Century Theatre and Budapest Opera House.

As an avid chamber musician, he is a founding member of the Arpello Duo, a cello and harp ensemble, promoting the writing and commissioning of new works for this rare group setting. He was twice a Tanglewood Music Center fellow and, each year, won the audition for performing concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Featured in masterclasses with Yo-Yo Ma, Franz Helmerson, Radu Aldulescu, Juilliard String Quartet, Guarnieri String Quartet, Mr. Gjoni has given orchestra performances under maestros Seiji Ozawa, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Kurt Masur, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Colin Davis, Leonard Slatkin.

Holgen plays on a contemporary American cello made by David Caron.