Sebastian Bru

The cellist Sebastian Bru comes from an Argentinian-Austrian family of musicians. He was born in 1987 in Vienna, studied with Jozef Podhoranský at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and with Robert Nagy at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna, and furthered his education in masterclasses with Clemens Hagen, David Geringas, Steven Isserlis and Heinrich Schiff.

At the age of 18 he successfully auditioned for the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, and in 2006 he joined the cello section there. In the 2010/11 season he was principal cellist of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Since January 2016 he has been section leader of the Vienna Philharmonic.

He also performs regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic and as principal cellist of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and the Munich Philharmonic.

He has performed as a soloist in Austria, elsewhere in Europe, in South America and in Asia with leading orchestras, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Spirit of Europe, the Concertino Wien and the Mexican Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM. He has given concerts in Buenos Aires with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional and toured to China with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Sebastian Bru is a founding member of the Vienna cello ensemble 5+1 and of the Philharmonic Ensemble Vienna. He also performs with members of the Vienna Philharmonic. His regular chamber music partners include Magda Amara, Rudolf Buchbinder, Rainer Honeck, Christoph Koncz, Jan Mráček, Josef Špaček, Jiří Vodička and Gottlieb Wallisch. He has undertaken several recital tours in China with the pianist Stefan Stroissnig.

Many of his concerts have been broadcast on national and international radio stations and on television. In 2015 he released a recording with the Philharmonic Ensemble Vienna for Deutsche Grammophon, and in 2019 he released the album à deux with Stefan Stroissnig for Sony Classical.

Sebastian Bru plays the ’ex Zweygberg’ by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, which is provided to him by the Austrian National Bank.