Truls Mørk’s compelling performances, combining fierce intensity, integrity and grace, have established him as one of the pre-eminent cellists of our time.
Truls Mørk is a celebrated artist who performs with the most distinguished orchestras including the Orchestre de Paris, Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Concertgebouworkest, Münchner Philharmoniker, Philharmonia and London Philharmonic orchestras and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. In North America he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras, Boston Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic. Conductor collaborations include Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Zinman, Manfred Honeck, Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Christoph Eschenbach, amongst others.
The 2021/22 season sees returns to Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, hr-Sinfonieorchester, and Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, to name a few. Truls Mørk will be Artist in Residence at the Tongyeong Festival in Korea, opening the Festival with Dvořák’s Cello Concerto under Dalia Stasevska. He will also perform Shostakovich Cello Concerto No.1 with the Cologne Chamber Orchestra conducted by Christopher Poppen, and in recital with Hie-Yon Choi.
A great champion of contemporary music, Truls Mørk has given in excess of 30 premieres. In the 2019/20 season he premiered Victoria Borisova-Ollas’ cello concerto Oh Giselle, Remember Me, commissioned by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra – where he was Artist in Residence, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Gothenburg Symphony, and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he will give the UK premiere of the piece in May 2022. He has also given highly successful performances of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto, conducted by the composer at the Royal Festival Hall, Lincoln Center and the Festival d’Aix en Provence. In collaboration with Klaus Mäkelä, he performed the Salonen Cello Concerto with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Other commissions include Rautavaara’s Towards the Horizon with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and John Storgårds, Pavel Haas’ Cello Concerto with Wiener Philharmoniker and Jonathan Nott, Krzysztof Penderecki's Concerto for Three Cellos with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Charles Dutoit, Hafliði Hallgrímsson's Cello Concerto, co-commissioned by the Oslo Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony and Scottish Chamber orchestras.
With an impressive recording output, Truls Mørk has recorded many of the great cello concertos for labels such as Virgin Classics, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Ondine, Arte Nova and Chandos many of which have won international awards including Gramophone, Grammy, Midem and ECHO Klassik awards. These include Dvořák’s Concerto (Mariss Jansons/Oslo Philharmonic), Britten's Cello Symphony and Elgar's Concerto (Sir Simon Rattle/CBSO), Miaskovsky Concerto and Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante (Paavo Järvi/CBSO), Dutilleux (Myung-Whun Chung/Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France), CPE Bach (Bernard Labadie/Les Violons du Roy), Haydn's Concertos (Iona Brown/Norwegian Chamber Orchestra), Rautavaara’s Towards the Horizon (John Storgårds/Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra) as well as the complete Bach Cello Suites and Britten Cello Suites. His most recent recordings include Shostakovich’s Concertos with Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra/Vasily Petrenko, works for cello and orchestra by Massenet with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande/Neeme Järvi and the Saint-Saëns Concertos together with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Neeme Järvi.
Initially taught by his father, Truls Mørk continued his studies with Frans Helmerson, Heinrich Schiff and Natalia Schakowskaya. In his early career he won a number of competitions such as the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition (1982), Cassado Cello Competition in Florence (1983), the Unesco Prize at the European Radio-Union competition in Bratislava (1983) and the Naumberg Competition in New York (1986).
As of May 2022
