Cellist Jan Müller-Szeraws’ musical journey has taken him over three continents as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher.
Since his early debut with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Concepción he has performed frequently as a soloist with orchestras in Chile, Germany and the United States. He has been a guest artist at many festivals including the Cape & Islands, Rockport, El Paso Pro-Musica, Strings in the Mountains (Steamboat Springs, CO), Delaware, Music at Gretna, Florida Arts, Sebago Long Lake and Kingston Chamber Music Festivals, the Garth Newel Music Center and the European Chamber Music Association.
Recent performances include the world premiere and recording of Bernard Hoffer’s Concerto di Camera II for solo cello and ensemble, written for him and Boston Musica Viva, the Boston premiere of Gunther Schuller’s cello concerto as well as John Harbison’s and Chou Wen-Chung’s concertos with the New England Philharmonic, Schumann concerto with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Concepción and Orquesta de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Shostakovich Concerto No. 1 and Brahms Double Concerto with violinist Bayla Keyes and the Concord Orchestra (MA), Haydn C major concerto with Worcester Collegium, Dvořák concerto with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, and Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra at the Moscow Conservatory’s Great Hall. He also recorded Pedro Humberto Allende’s cello concerto with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile, which has been released by the Chilean Academy of Fine Arts as part of the 200th anniversary of Chilean Independence celebration. During the 2010/2011 season he was invited to join the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra as guest principal cellist for two projects, including a live Bavarian Broadcasting concert of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15, conducted by Mikhail Pletnev, as well as a tour of China with the orchestra’s principal conductor, Jonathan Nott. Other recent projects have been the release of “Anusvara”, a disc with music by Shirish Korde for cello, tabla and carnatic soprano, the premiere of “Mutations” for solo cello and computer by Chris Arrell, as well as a recording of sonatas by Brahms and Chopin with pianist Adam Golka for Hammond Performing Arts.
Müller-Szeraws has appeared regularly at the Hammond Performing Arts Series in the Greater Boston Area, playing recitals with pianists Ya-Fei Chuang and Adam Golka, as well as in other chamber music formations. He is the cellist of the contemporary music ensemble Boston Musica Viva and a founding member of Trio Tremonti.
He has been broadcasted by radio and TV stations in the United States, Chile and Germany. Müller-Szeraws has been artist and teacher in residence at the Jornadas Musicales Internacionales de Invierno in Concepción, Chile and has taught master classes at the Garth Newel Music Center, Columbus State University and Academia de Música Antonio Vivaldi, Concepción. He was a guest lecturer at the Universidad Católica de Chile in 2007 and 2008, and currently teaches at the Phillips Academy Andover and College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.
A prize winner at the Washington International Competition, he is a grant recipient of the Saul and Naomi Cohen Foundation, which is generously lending him a cello by David Tecchler (1717).
Jan Müller-Szeraws studied at the Musikhochschule Freiburg, Germany and holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Boston University. His teachers include Andrés Díaz, Christoph Henkel, Arnaldo Fuentes, Javier Santamaría and Christiane Gleisner.