One of the defining cellists of his time.

Standing ovations in the world's great concert halls, from Carnegie Hall in New York to the Berliner Philharmonie, tens of thousands of listeners each season and millions of views of his recordings and videos: Benedict Kloeckner is one of the defining cellists of his time.

As a soloist he performs with orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Kremerata Baltica, the MDR-Sinfonieorchester and the Münchener Kammerorchester. He has worked with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, Christoph Eschenbach, Cristian Măcelaru, Michael Sanderling and Ingo Metzmacher. His chamber music partners include Emanuel Ax, Sir András Schiff, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Lisa Batiashvili and Gidon Kremer.

His concerts take him regularly to the major musical centres of the world, among them the Berliner Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Wiener Musikverein, the Tonhalle Zürich and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

Highlights of the 2026/27 season include recitals at the Berliner Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Tonhalle Zürich and the Wiener Konzerthaus, both Haydn concertos with the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin in the main hall of the Berliner Philharmonie, the Brahms Double Concerto at the Wiener Musikverein, concertos at the Kölner Philharmonie and his debut with the NCPA Orchestra in Beijing.

His recordings appear on Berlin Classics and Sony. His recording of Dvořák's Cello Concerto with the Grammy-winning conductor Cristian Măcelaru and the Romanian Chamber Orchestra received international acclaim. Current projects include the world premiere recording of Kjell Flem's Cello Concerto with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Markus L. Frank and a new album of Schubert and Mendelssohn with Yu Kosuge. His discography also includes the Brahms sonatas and the complete Bach Cello Suites, which he has performed as a cycle at the Berliner Philharmonie, the Munich Residenz and the Alte Oper Frankfurt.

Contemporary music is a second focus of his work. He has given world and national premieres of works by Wolfgang Rihm, Dai Fujikura, Eun Hwa Cho and Eric Tanguy.

He is founder and artistic director of the International Music Festival Koblenz, co-director of the Paul Juon Festival in Nyon, Switzerland, and chairman of the International Violoncello Society. He studied with Martin Ostertag at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe and with Frans Helmerson and Gary Hoffman at the Kronberg Academy, and is Professor of Cello at the École Normale de Musique de Paris.