Martin
Rummel

Austrian cellist Martin Rummel is much more than just that: he describes himself as a ‘musician, cultural manager, academic and bon vivant’, even though playing the cello has remained his ‘core business’ alongside his academic career. A growing number (currently almost 70) of CD albums for various labels have earned him not only high praise from audiences and the press, but also a reputation as one of the leading cellists of his generation. Numerous first recordings and rediscoveries testify to Rummel's conviction that content is more important than packaging. ‘The big task for the next generation is to finally throw away the tailcoat and focus more on what and how is being played instead of who and where,’ says Rummel.

Martin Rummel is a guest performer with orchestras, concert organisers and festivals in Europe, Asia, Oceania, North and South America, working with conductors and chamber music partners of all generations; name-dropping is not his thing. As an educator, he is the editor of a series of sheet music volumes of all essential cello études published by Bärenreiter, which has become the global standard. After a lectureship at the Music Academy in Kassel, he was Head of School at the School of Music at the University of Auckland from 2016 to 2020 and held an honorary professorship at the China Conservatory of Music from 2017 to 2020. At the University of Auckland, he led a comprehensive process to redesign the curriculum for the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music programmes. After just over a year as managing director of the JAM MUSIC LAB private university in Vienna, he has been president of the Anton Bruckner University since 1 October 2021 and chairman of the Austrian Private Universities Conference (ÖPUK) since 2024. A passionate music educator, he has been curating festivals, radio programmes and recording labels since the 1990s and speaks and writes about music.

Rummel is a graduate of the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz and the Cologne University of Music. His heart beats for a tradition of playing that was passed on to him over a decade by the legendary William Pleeth and which always focuses on the music, not the musician.