‘For me, playing the cello means telling stories.’
Polish-born cellist Joanna Sachryn impresses with her expressiveness and a personality that deliberately refuses to be pigeonholed. Her enormous stage presence and unmistakable cello sound reflect her universal experience as a chamber musician, soloist, orchestral player and professor.
At the age of 17, Joanna Sachryn caused a sensation as the youngest solo cellist at the opera in Szczecin. At the same time, she graduated from the Music Conservatory in Szczecin and gained a reputation as a prizewinner in national competitions. Her studies took her to the soloist class of the outstanding teacher Professor Gerhard Mantel at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and to William Pleeth in London, the teacher of many important cellists, including Jacqueline du Pré.
Joanna Sachryn received further decisive impulses through repertoire studies with the two Russian giants Mstislav Rostropovich and Daniil Schafran.
This was followed by engagements with top European orchestras, including: The Philharmonia Orchestra London, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Munich Philharmonic, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, The Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
As a soloist she has performed with Korean Chamber Orchestra, Wernigerode Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra Regensburg, Württembergische Symphoniker, Oradea State Orchestra, Filarmonica ‘ Paul Constantinescu’ Ploiesti, Orquesta Filarmónica de Mâlaga and several times as a soloist in China concert tours of the German Radio Chamber Orchestra and with conductors such as Martin Fischer - Dieskau, Walter Hilgers, Lior Shambadal, Jin Wang, Ricardo Medeiros, Tetsuro Ban, Dorian Keilhack and Raul Grüneis.
Her great passion is chamber music. Since 1999 she is the cellist of the renowned Cologne Piano Trio. Together with colleagues from the Vienna Philharmonic, she forms the celebrated Vienna Cello Ensemble 5+1.
Performs in duo with the Spanish pianist Pablo Amorós. In duo with Paul Rivinius, the world premiere recording of the sonatas by Ferdinand Hiller and Anton Urspruch ‘Forgotten Treasures’ was released in 2020, followed in 2023 by the CD ‘Meyer-Shostakovich’; both were enthusiastically received by the media.
The famous Polish composer Krzysztof Meyer dedicated his new Op.141 - Adagio serioso to her. In 2023, she performed the world premiere of the dedicated to her „Paysage Intime" by Tomasz Skweres with the Madrid Festival Orchestra.
She performs on international stages and at festivals as: Alte Oper Frankfurt, Musikverein Vienna, London Royal Festival Hall, Cecilia Meirelles Hall Rio de Janeiro, Seoul Kumho Concert Hall, Lotte-Concert Hall and Seoul Arts Centre, Santory Hall Tokyo, Beijing National Center for the Performing Arts, Orientale Art Center and Shanghai Symphony Hall, Shenzhen City Hall, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Shanghai Spring Festival, Liana Issakadze Festival in Georgia, International Cello Festival Katowice in Poland, Festival Musica Musika Bilbao or Santander Music Festival Spain.
Joanna Sachryn is a professor at the Yehudi Menuhin School Qingdao in China, also teaches at the Akademie für Musik Berlin, at the Central Conservatory in Beijing and as a guest professor at Tongji University Shanghai. She regularly gives masterclasses in Europe, Asia and South America.
