Cellist ERIK ÁSGEIRSSON has earned high praise from conductors, composers, audience members and reviewers for his “refined magic of tone colors…exquisitely beautiful melodies and enormous virtuosity” (Der Westen, Germany). He has been featured as concerto soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Canada, Netherlands and Germany, with national broadcasts on German National Radio and Dutch National Radio.
As an alum of the Lucerne (Switzerland) Festival, Ásgeirsson performed in a series of events entitled Matthias Pintscher’s Universe at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, returning to Lucerne and Hamburg in 2019 to serve as co-principal cellist under the baton of Riccardo Chailly. Other credits include Italy’s Amici Della Musica and Gustav Mahler Festivals, France’s Festival Music Alp and Germany’s “Romanische Nacht” Festival, Forum Neue Musik, Franz Liszt Akademie, Kölner Philharmonie Lunch series and Beethovenfest Bonn.
Following two years as a member of the Staatskapelle Weimar Orchestra and Academy Fellowship positions in the Berlin Radio and Komische Oper (Berlin) Orchestras, he was appointed Solocellist (principal) of Philharmonie Sudwestfalen in Siegen in 2017, where he now also serves as adjunct Lecturer (cello) at the University of Siegen.
Since his Chicago debut recital on the prestigious Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert series in 2015, Ásgeirsson has returned to the U.S. for several performances with Chamber Soloists of Detroit. In November of 2022, he took the stage at the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam with his CSD colleagues and Royal Concertgebouw principal clarinetist Olivier Patey in a CSD debut performance, recorded for broadcast by Dutch National Radio.
A native of West Bloomfield, Michigan, Ásgeirsson won top awards in numerous regional youth competitions, earnimg a seat in the Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra at the tender age of 11. Later as principal cellist, he represented the orchestra state-wide as a member of the award-winning DSO Civic Quartet. Formative studies with Paul Wingert and Erling Blöndal Bengtsson and summer programs with Philippe Muller (Festival Music Alp), Steven Geber and Orlando Cole (Encore School for Strings, Cleveland) culminated in a performance degree on scholarship at the Eastman School of Music under the tutelage of Steven Doane, with an exchange year of study at Musikhochschule Freiburg with Christoph Henkel. He holds a master’s degree in cello performance from the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, where he studied with Maria Kliegel, Frans Helmerson and Johannes Moser.