MARCEL JOHANNES KITS

Estonian cellist Marcel Johannes Kits has emerged as one of the most distinctive musicians of his generation, combining intellectual clarity with expressive sincerity. A Third Prize laureate of the 2022 Queen Elisabeth Cello Competition and First Prize winner of the 2018 George Enescu International Competition, he has established an international career as a soloist and chamber musician. His playing has been praised for its restrained intensity, intelligence and deeply human approach to sound.

Recent concerto highlights include Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Santtu-Matias Rouvali, the Brahms Double Concerto on tour in Estonia and South Korea with the Estonian Festival Orchestra under Paavo Järvi, and Haydn’s C-major Cello Concerto with the Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta under Neeme Järvi. During the 2025/26 season, Marcel also had two opportunities to perform Édouard Lalo’s demanding Cello Concerto in D minor, first with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra under Yan Pascal Tortelier and later with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra under Robertas Šervenikas. A review of the latter observed that the concerto “seemed as if written especially for him” and praised Marcel as both a leading voice and “an attentive and deeply sincere musical partner, closely attuned to the orchestra.”

As a soloist, Marcel has appeared with orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Belgian National Orchestra, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Kymi Sinfonietta, Jyväskylä Sinfonia, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Jena Philharmonic and Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa. He has worked with conductors including Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Stéphane Denève, Antoni Wit, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Eivind Aadland, Vassily Sinaisky, Olari Elts, Robertas Šervenikas, Tõnu Kaljuste and Arvo Volmer.

His artistic interests extend well beyond the central cello repertoire. In 2025, Marcel gave his first performance of Georgian composer Giya Kancheli’s Simi: Joyless Thoughts with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra under Robertas Šervenikas at the closing concert of the Klaipėda Cello Festival. Later that year, he performed Osvaldo Golijov’s Azul with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and accordionist Artūrs Noviks at the Cello Cēsis Festival and returned to the George Enescu Festival, performing Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme with the Mihail Jora Philharmonic Orchestra of Bacău under Omar El Jamali.

At the 2025 Pärnu Music Festival, Marcel’s interpretation of Elgar’s Sospiri attracted the attention of Classical Voice North America critic Xenia Hanusiak, who praised the “elevated passion” he brought to the work. In spring 2026, he appeared at the Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival alongside Martha Argerich and Lahav Shani in Schumann’s Andante and Variations. That summer brought another new direction in his work when the Viljandi Early Music Festival presented the world premiere of his own arrangement for cello of Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

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The music of Arvo Pärt holds a particularly important place in Marcel’s artistic work. In 2023, together with the Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta under Neeme Järvi, he gave the first Estonian performance of Pärt’s rediscovered cadenzas for Haydn’s C-major Cello Concerto. Written in 1979 and rediscovered more than forty years later during archival work at the Arvo Pärt Centre, the cadenzas now form part of a forthcoming recording with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra under Kristiina Poska. The programme combines Haydn’s two cello concertos with Pärt’s Pro et Contra.