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Leonhard Roczek
Leonhard Roczek has been the cellist of the Minetti Quartet for over two decades, performing worldwide and releasing numerous critically acclaimed recordings. Alongside his extensive chamber music career, he appears as a soloist and orchestral musician, and is also a respected composer and arranger as well as a dedicated pedagogue. Since 2014 he has taught chamber music at the Mozarteum University, where he has served as Head of the Department of String Studies since 2022.
Leonhard Roczek was born into a family of musicians in Salzburg in 1983 and studied with Heidi Litschauer, Clemens Hagen and Valentin Erben. At a young age he won multiple prizes at competitions in Liezen, Gorizia and Gradus ad Parnassum, and received a scholarship from the Thyll-Dürr Foundation. He is a founding member of the Minetti Quartet, with whom he has given concerts in North and South America, Japan, China, Australia and at many European venues, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Konserthuset Stockholm and London’s Wigmore Hall.
He is also a regular guest at renowned chamber music festivals such as the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Salzburg International Mozart Week, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the Schleswig-Holstein, Aldeburgh and Aix-en-Provence Festivals, where he performs with chamber music partners such as Fazil Say, Paul Meyer, Jörg Widmann, Martin Fröst, Sharon Kam, Sarah Willis, Lars Anders Tomter, István Várdai and Alois Posch. He received essential artistic impulses from Ferenc Rados, Alfred Brendel, Anner Bylsma and Johannes Meissl, as well as members of the Alban Berg, Amadeus, Artemis and Hagen Quartets.
In addition to his intensive focus on string quartet repertoire, Leonhard Roczek also performs in piano trio and piano duo formations and is a member of the cello sextet CelloVersum. He regularly appears as a soloist with symphony and chamber orchestras (RSO Vienna, Graz Philharmonic, Bruckner Orchestra Linz, Philharmonie Salzburg, Radio Symphony Orchestra Tirana), and gained orchestral playing experience with the Vienna Philharmonic and Camerata Salzburg. Since his youth, he has also been active as a composer, rock musician (Metaphysis, Genuine Aspect) and arranger (Kolophonistinnen).
He has given masterclasses for cello and chamber music in Spain (Conde Duque Madrid), Sweden (Musikhögskolan Ingesund), Finland (Kuhmo Festival), Canada (McGill University), Mexico (Sonoro Festival) and in the USA (University of Northern Iowa, Colorado State University, Utah State University). He has taught chamber music at the Mozarteum University Salzburg since 2014 - an activity that has become increasingly important in his artistic work in recent years and is reflected in the success of his students as competition prizewinners and performers at major festivals (including the Salzburg Festival). In 2022 he was appointed head of the Department of String Studies.
Leonhard Roczek plays a cello by Giovanni Tononi (Bologna, 1681), on loan from the Austrian National Bank.
A triumph and a sensation. These four young musicians play Mendelssohn as only the best of the very best can.
— Eleonore Buening, FAZ
"It's been a long time since we've seen so many exciting things and so many good things on a new CD."
(KlassikInfo) Felix Mendelssohn:
"A triumph and an event. These four young musicians play Mendelssohn so enchantingly transparent and with flawless contours, both dramatic and sharp, full of light but with depth as only the best of the very good can."
(Eleonore Büning in the FAZ of September 13, 2012) Ludwig van Beethoven:
"Uncompromising, but completely unemotional, the intonation flawless, the technical superiority admirable. The urgency of her playing deliberately avoids the mere beautiful sound, but also celebrates his high-spirited joy in combinatorial play - and thus hits the human core of this music."
(BR-Klassik) Franz Schubert:
"The Minetti Quartet seems to float effortlessly and redeemed above things. An impressive anniversary album, on which the quiet tones are the important ones."
(BR Classic)