Eckart Runge  - cellist

As a soloist, chamber musician, visionary and teacher, Eckart Runge has establishes himself as one of the most versatile cellists of his generation.

Three decades Eckart Runge marked the characteristic profile of the Artemis Quartet, with which he performed in major concert series and festivals worldwide. And – and vice versa the quartet marked him: he got to the bottom of the great, complex quartet literature which has become a part of his musical personality. Albums, since 2005 exclusively for Warner/Erato have been granted numerous awards such as the Grammophone Award, the ECHO-Klassik and the Diapason d’Or.

As of 2019 Eckart Runge decided to leave the quartet and endeavour for new artistic challenges, persuing his solo-projects and above all, his passion of presenting programs that converge varied musical genres and art forms, such as classical, jazz, rock-pop and film music, also to reach out to younger and wider audiences, for chamber music presented in a new contemporary way.

Since 25 years, his Duo Runge&Ammon performs these programs in festivals, series and clubs alike, across Europe, the USA, South-America and Asia. In 2021 the Duo released an album ‘Revolutionary Icons’, exploring Beethoven in the reflexion of similarly radical icons of rock-pop-jazz like Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa and Miles Davis on the Berlin Classics label. 2022 a new album ‘Baroque in Blue’, a dialogue of baroque and jazz-inspired compositions will follow.

Eckart’s first solo-album with the radio orchestra Berlin (RSB), released in 2020, featuring the world premiere recording of Nikolai Kapustin’s jazzy cello concerto op. 85 as well as the passionate 1^st concerto by Alfred Schnittke was awarded the prestigious ‘Prize of German Music Critics. 

Teaming up with the renowned Italian Quartetto di Cremona, an album with the famous Schubert quintet, was released in spring of 2019, as well as the ‘Souvenir de Florence’ on the ensemble’s latest album ‘Italian Postcards’. The younger Korean Esmé-Quartet and German Aris Quartett are also among his frequent partners. 

Eckart Runge plays a beautiful cello made by the brothers Hieronymus and Antonio Amati in Cremona in 1595, a generous loan of Merito String Instrument Trust Vienna.

Born in Heidelberg, Eckart Runge studied with Edmond Baert in Brussels and David Geringas in Lübeck. Further artistic inspirations include the Alban Berg Quartet Alfred Brendel, Walter Levin, Boris Pergamenschikow, and György Kurtag. Several awards in music-competitions such as Premio Stradivari Cremona, the Concours International de Musique de Genève and ARD Music Competition Munich initiated his active international career on stage.

As a professor at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf as well as on international master classes, he passes on his experience to students from across the world.

Eckart Runge’s vision of being an artists goes far beyond his his commitments of performing and teaching. He supports Yehudi Menuhin’s Live Music Now, Jeunesses Musicales Germany and youth orchestra projects in South America, as well as Mit-Mach Musik, a social integration project for refugee children.