Cellist Jan Vogler progressed from an early prodigy into a multifaceted performer who occupies a prominent position in today’s classical landscape. Chamber music has formed a central part of his activity both on stage and in organizational roles.
Born on February 18, 1964, in Berlin, Vogler grew up in the former East Germany. He began cello studies at age six under his father Peter and later trained with the veteran Berlin cellist and pedagogue Josef Schwab. At twenty he assumed the principal cello chair of the venerable Staatskapelle Dresden, becoming the youngest concertmaster in the orchestra’s nearly five-hundred-year history. Eager for additional study in the West, he navigated the lengthy application process required to obtain an exit permit from East Germany. In 1988, four months after applying, he received a passport following an invitation to the Marlboro Festival in Vermont, extended at the recommendation of one of his teachers, Siegfried Palm, to pianist Rudolf Serkin.
Time spent at Marlboro introduced a lasting chamber-music dimension to Vogler’s work, and he has since performed and recorded extensively in that repertory, frequently alongside pianist Hélène Grimaud. Late in 1989 he returned to the United States for a tour with Marlboro-affiliated musicians; upon landing at Kennedy Airport in October his wallet was stolen. He persuaded a bus driver to allow him free passage into Manhattan, only to discover that the friend scheduled to meet him had overlooked the arrangement. A fellow musician offered lodging, and the tour proceeded successfully, during which the young German enjoyed such American indulgences as late-night Chinese meals. A few days afterward he watched the fall of the Berlin Wall on television, an event that deepened his subsequent artistic ties to the United States. In 1991 he met violinist Mira Wang; the couple later married, raised two children, and learned to collaborate musically without conflict. Vogler remained with the Staatskapelle Dresden until 1996, after which he began dividing his professional life between New York and Dresden.
Also in 1996 came Vogler’s first recording, a collection of Beethoven works for cello and piano made with Bruno Canino and released on Berlin Classics, the label for which he recorded until 2004. That year he moved to Sony Classical, where his projects have encompassed concertos, chamber pieces, and contemporary scores. In 2010 he collaborated with the ensemble the Knights, known for its appearances in non-traditional spaces. One of his most celebrated releases features Bach’s six Suites for solo cello; the recording earned him his third ECHO-Klassik award in Germany in 2014. For his 2016 account of Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129, Vogler used a 1707 Stradivarius fitted with gut strings, producing an essentially historical interpretation. The following year he joined comic actor Bill Murray for the album New Worlds, in which Murray recited passages from American literature supported by a classical chamber ensemble that Vogler assembled. In 2018 Vogler and Wang released an album of double concertos by Brahms, Wolfgang Rihm, and John Harbison. Two years later he recorded the Three Continents cello concerto—comprising movements by Nico Muhly, Sven Helbig, and Zhou Long—with the WDR Sinfonieorchester.
