Swiss cellist Jonathan Gerstner was born on the shores of Lake Geneva in 2003. He began playing the cello at the age of five with Aude Pivôt, continued his path with Martin Reetz at the Lausanne Conservatoire and from 2020 studied with Patrick Demenga at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne (HEMU). Since 2022, he has been studying with Reinhard Latzko in Austria at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts (mdw). In 2025 he also joined the class of Julia Hagen at the same school. Further valuable input came from Jens Peter Maintz, Peter Bruns, Steven Isserlis, Thomas Grossenbacher, Troels Svane, Marc Coppey and Pieter Wispelwey among others.

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In January 2026 he won the 1st Prize at the Heinrich Schiff International Cello Competition in Vienna, alongside with the Dr. Alfred Hubert Special Prize. As a result of this achievement, he was invited to perform the Schumann Cello Concerto with the North Czech Philharmonic Teplice during the 61. Ludwig van Beethoven Hudebni Festival 2026.

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Jonathan has been part of the 2024 Verbier Festival Orchestra (VFO), playing under the direction of conductors like Sir Simon Rattle, Antonio Pappano and Klaus Mäkelä. 

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Highly passionate about chamber music, he has studied with teachers such as Vincent Coq in Lausanne and currently Johannes Meissl and Stefan Mendl in Vienna, as well as receiving invaluable advice from Eckart Runge, Hatto Beyerle, Avedis Kouyoumdjian, Patrick Jüdt and Dirk Mommertz within the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA). In 2025, as part of the Cuore Piano Trio, he won the first prize along with a special prize at the 10th International Johannes Brahms Chamber Music Competition in Gdańsk. In 2026, he joined the Cuore Piano Trio as a permanent member of the ensemble.

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In recent years Jonathan performed on stage with artists such as Sergey Ostrovsky, Noémie Bialobroda, Marko Ylönen, Jean-Sélim Abdelmoula, Patrick Demenga, Philippe Graffin and Reinhard Latzko. As a soloist and chamber musician, he has appeared on all four of Switzerland’s national classical radio stations, and performed at international festivals and concert venues including the Prague Spring Festival, Geneva International String Academy, Musikverein Wien, Cello Biënnale Amsterdam, Lavaux Classic, K&M Festival Stavanger, Loisiarte, Beethovenhaus Baden and the Musikfestwoche Meiringen.

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Find out more: https://jonathan-gerstner.com/