Ivan Monighetti was the last student to be taught by Mstislav Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory. He won numerous first prizes at various international competitions, and since then has enjoyed a career which has taken him all over Europe, and also to America, Japan and Korea.
He has performed as a soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including Kurt Masur, Charles Dutoit, Valery Gergiev, Muhai Tang, Krzysztof Penderecki, Mstislav Rostropovich, Andrey Boreyko and Dmitri Kitayenko.
His sensational performances at major contemporary music festivals and friendships with composers such as Penderecki, Meyer, Szymanski, Tan Dun, Xenakis, Schnittke, Gubaidulina, Knaifel, Silvestrov, Ali-Zadeh and Kelterborn have contributed to his reputation as a recognised expert in the field of contemporary music. Many of the works written especially for him have since been adopted into the established cello repertoire.
Following his successful debut as a conductor at the English Haydn Festival, Ivan Monighetti now enjoys a varied career, both as a cello soloist and an internationally renowned conductor. He has conducted many leading orchestras, including the English Haydn Festival Orchestra, the Austrian-Slovak Philharmonic, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Juventus, the Musica Viva Orchestra Moscow, the Georgian Chamber Orchestra, the Algarve Symphony Orchestra and the Viva Cello Festival Orchestra. From 2014 to 2016 he was an Artist in Residence as a conductor and soloist at the Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic in Poland. His debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra at the Cello Biennale Amsterdam followed in October 2016, where he gave a world premiere performance of Rob Zuidam’s cello concerto.
Swiss TV has produced two documentaries featuring Ivan Monighetti: “Ritratto a Monighetti” and “Monighetti: Storie di famiglia”. He has recorded CDs for Erato, Harmonia Mundi, Orfeo, Wergo and DUX. His most recent releases include works by Alexander Knaifel (ECM) and Haydn’s cello concertos and minuets (DUX). Both CDs feature Ivan Monighetti as cellist and conductor. He has also recorded Beethoven’s cello sonatas together with Pavel Gililov.
In 2003, Ivan Monighetti was awarded the Polish “Fryderyk” music prize, and in 2015, he was honoured in Poland for his musical accomplishments.
Ivan Monighetti is the artistic director of the Viva Cello Festival, Switzerland. He is also Professor of Cello at the City of Basel Music Academy and at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, as well as visiting professor at the Academy of Music in Krakow.
His students include several internationally renowned soloists such as Sol Gabetta, Nicolas Altstaedt, Kian Soltani, Emil Rovner and Asier Polo.
Photo: © Josep Molina