"He creates a coherent world of the six suites, as well as a precise attention to the details of each movemeent and phrase"

Pizzicato Magazine

David Stromberg seeks to give audiences new ways of listening – whether through historical performance, improvisation, rediscovered repertoire or rare historical instruments. Performing on modern cello, baroque cello and cello piccolo, this German cellist creates programmes that invite audiences to experience familiar repertoire from new perspectives.

Equally at home as a soloist and chamber musician, he combines established masterpieces with rarely heard works, historically informed interpretation and innovative concert concepts. His recordings have received widespread critical acclaim, while his research into performance practice and the rediscovery of instruments such as the Duplex-Coupler Grand Piano has inspired projects that bridge scholarship and artistic imagination.

Alongside his work as a performer, David Stromberg is dedicated to education, giving masterclasses on the improvisation of classical cadenzas and developing projects that introduce new audiences to classical music.

David Stromberg studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg with Prof. Wolfgang Mehlhorn and at the Musikinstitut Schloss Edsberg in Stockholm with Prof. Frans Helmerson. Alongside his training as a modern cellist, he developed a deep interest in historical performance practice, studying with leading specialists in baroque and classical interpretation. Musicologist Clive Brown became an important influence on his approach to the performance practice of the Classical period.

His recordings reflect his wide-ranging artistic interests. In 2022, he released the complete Cello Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach on a baroque cello, a recording praised for its combination of a coherent overall vision and meticulous attention to detail. His album Transition, produced in collaboration with Deutschlandradio, presented Schumann’s Cello Concerto, Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations and his own arrangements of Romantic works for cello and wind quintet. The recording was selected as CD of the Week by SWR and received enthusiastic reviews. Die Welt: “Had the great Romantics [Schumann, Tchaikovsky] been able to hear these chamber music versions of their orchestral works, they might even have regretted not conceiving them this way in the first place.”

A specialist in historically informed performance, David Stromberg has a particular affinity with the music of Beethoven. His complete recording of the Sonatas for Cello and Piano with pianist Lucas Blondeel, made on historical instruments, will be released in 2026 and forms the basis of concert programmes celebrating Beethoven’s music in 2027. 

His fascination with forgotten musical inventions led him to rediscover Emanuel Moór’s Duplex-Coupler Grand Piano. Together with pianist Florian Uhlig, he recorded sonatas by Moór, Dohnányi and Richard Strauss for this unique instrument, inspiring the Emanuel Moór Concert Series at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and further explorations of its extraordinary possibilities.His fascination with forgotten musical inventions led him to rediscover Emanuel Moór’s Duplex-Coupler Grand Piano. Together with pianist Florian Uhlig, he recorded sonatas by Moór, Dohnányi and Richard Strauss for this unique instrument, inspiring the Emanuel Moór Concert Series at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and further explorations of its extraordinary possibilities.

Alongside his performing career, David Stromberg is dedicated to education. He gives masterclasses on the improvisation of cadenzas in Classical concertos, reviving a tradition in which performers developed their own spontaneous responses to the music.

Programme proposals

Video

Johann-Sebastian Bach: Suite D-Dur BWV 1012 für Cello piccolo

VOTUM - ELGAR CELLOKONZERT NEU ARRANGIERT

Gordon Kampe: "Toccata" for cello piccolo

I improvise three cadenzas for Mozart´s violin concerto in A major, KV 219