Lev joins us in 2025 to perform Britten’s Cello Symphony in PARTY FAITHFUL on Saturday 26 July.
Lev Sitkov, cellist, was born into a musical family in Novosibirsk, Russia, in 1990. In 2006 he moved to Basel, Switzerland, to study with Ivan Monighetti, completing his Bachelor studies with Conradin Brotbeck in Stuttgart. He has participated in masterclasses with Janos Starker at Indiana University, USA, Wolfgang Schmidt at Kronberg, Germany, Ferenc Rados at Prussia Cove, England, and Jean-Guihen Queyras in Freiburg, Germany. In 2016 he was appointed Principal Cellist of the Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen, Denmark. The following year, 2017, he became Principal Cellist of Opernhaus Zürich, Switzerland.
Lev is a laureate of numerous competitions, most notably the prestigious Naumburg Competition in New York, USA, which he won in 2015. In October 2018 he won 3rd prize in the Isang Yun Competition in Tongyeong, South Korea, and was also awarded the Unesco Creative City of Music Special Prize by the audience.
He is constantly active on the international stage as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. He has concertized in many countries: including Carnegie Hall, New York, and in San Francisco; Zürich, Paris, Besançon, Avignon, Aix-en-Provence and Montpellier; Belarus, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Korea and New Zealand. He has performed as soloist with the Zürich Philharmonia, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Prague Philharmonia, Mulhouse Symphony Orchestra, Baden-Baden Philharmonia, Orchestra Wellington and Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.
Lev is currently on his third visit to New Zealand. He has played Benjamin Britten's Cello Symphony as soloist with Orchestra Wellington and is concertizing and recording with his well-known colleagues Andrew Beer and Sarah Watkins, who formed the Levansa Piano Trio with him in 2019.
